
Book ^^X^"^ 



I 



J 



^/^a^Aj 








ON THE 




PROGRESS AND PERFECTION 
'4 a^ZiTt^m^^^^^i^^ 




OF THE 




CHURCH OF CHRIST. 

BY GEORGE BOURNE. 



After the Lord had spoken unto them, he was received 
up into heaven, and sat on the right hand of God. And 
they went forth and preached every where, the Lord 
working with them, and confirming the word with signs 
following. Amen. MAiiK. 



MOUNT-PLEASANT, N. Y. 
PUBLISHED BY R. W. KNIGHT. 

S. MARSHALL, PRINTER. 

1823. 




. ^'^5^>'> VS:;»£" ^ Vj\5^\ 









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• • > -» ^ 



PREFACE. 



These Lectures upon Ecclesiastical History were 
originally intended solely, to diversify public instruc- 
tion in the ordinary routine oi" christian ministerial 
duties ; which constitutes a sufficient apology to dis- 
arm criticism. The Prospectus remarked, " as the 
principal object is to dev elope to youth, and to per- 
sons who have enjoyed butfew^ opportunities of study. 
a concise delineation of the prominent features and 
facts which the annals of the Christian Church com- 
bine; and as the form of instruction is oral and pop- 
ular, all learned and recondite investigations are un- 
avoidably precluded." 

The last note in the Appendix contains the infor- 
mation ordinarily included in an introductory no- 
tice ; to it, the reader is referred for any explanation 
which he may desire, concerning the materials of 
which the volume is composed. 

The Author believes, that notwithstanding all their 
imperfections, these Lectures are not the vehicle of 
error ; he has endeavoured in connection with the 
narrative, to oppose essential aberrations from the 
truth, to defend the fundamental doctrines of the 



PREFACE. 

Gospel, and to inculcate the importance of fraternal 
affection among Christians, thereby to augment that 
" communion of all saints" which will constitute the 
peace and the glory of the Millennium. If an heter- 
odoxical opinion sanctioned as evangelical verity, 
or a statement which can excite a discordant feeling 
between the sincerely devotional disciples of the 
gracious Redeemer— ?^hould be discovered in the vol- 
ume, no person will more sincerely censure, or more 
quickly expunge the morbid excrescence. 

The prophetical illustrations are incorporated ex- 
pressly to demonstrate the truth of Divine Revelation,, 
and to educe a devout and practical acknowledgment 
that the Author and Founder of Christianity, is the 
God of all Grace, King of Kings, and Lord of Lords, 

GEORGE BOURNE. 

Mount-Pleasant, N. Y. 
Afrijl 16, ims. 



f' 



INDEX OF TITLES. 



Page. 

I. fntrodjjctory. The study of ecclesiastieal history, I 

II. The Apostles. Evangelists, doctrines, discipline, perseeutioDS, 
and progress of the church during the first century, 21 

IIL The order, eminent Christians, heresies and persecutions 

of the church during the second century, 36 

IV. The eminent Christiios, doctrines, government, heresies, and 

persecutions of the church during the third century, 67 

V. The triu(wpb, doctrine, government, ministers, ceremonies, 
and heresies of the church during ihe fourth century, 85 

Tl. The extension, doctrines, rites, and the ceremonies of the 

church during the fiUii aud .sixth centuries, 100 

Til The Mohammedans and the Turks — the superstition, ignor- 
ance, discord and depravity of tiie (Jreeks uatil the Reform- 
ation, 114 
Till. Prophesies respecting the Latin church, 135 
IX. The dominion aud power ot the Papal hierarchy, 154 
X. Ciiaractenstics of the Popedom, 189 
XI. Supporters of the Papal Apostacy, 193 
Xii Tlie tno witiiesses who propuesy "clothed in sackcloth/* 22^ 

XliJ. iHE KErORMATlOM : 241 

XiV. Opposition lo ttie Protestants, 260 
XV, The Greek, Romai*, Liuaerau and Anglican episcopal church 

from the RetbrmaUon, 285 

XVI. The moderfl reformed churches, 311 

XVII. Theological coutreversies, 335 

XVlil The principal modern deu^mioatioos, 364 

XIX. Christianity in the United SUte^, 393 

XX. titrjj^ious instiiutioas, 410 

XXI. Tau jHiLL£NiNiuif, 424 



INDEX TO THE LECTURES. 



A. 

America discovered 

America settled 

Anglican established church 

Apostles 

Artifice 

Asiatic seven churclics 

Augsburgh confession 

Auricular confessiou 

Austria 

B. 
Baptism of Heretics 
Baptists 377, 

Bishops and Presbyters 
Blasphemy of the heathca Priests 57 Douatists 



Page Sabellian 76 

237 Trinitarian 340 

393 Councils 72, 92, 227, 269 

300 Court of High Commision 306 

21 Craisades ' 208 

20i; D. 

36,;Degeneracy ot the ecclesiastical 
248;' orders 
18l*Depravity of the Greeks 



2d2 

75 

407 



Destruction of images 
Diet of Worms 

Discipline of the primitive Chris- 
tians 



95i Discord among the Greeks 



275 Duratioa of the Millennium 



317. 



E. 



307;Ebionites 

English Reformers 
182 Enthusiasm 
1 10 Epispcopacy 



31 



Blessings of the Reformation 

Bohemia 

Book of Sports 

C. 

Celibacy 145, 

Ceremonies 97, 

Characttristics of the MillenBium 433 Episcopalian 

Christianity trre 6, 130 Evangelists 

Claims of the^Romau Bishop 74 Extension of Christianity 

Commencement of the 1260 Extreme Unction 

years 158, 426 F. 

Cooameucement of the Millen- Faith of the primitiTC Chris 

oium 427, tians 

Conference at Liepsic 243 Feasts of charity 

Congregational ists 405 Festival at Ararat 

Coastantinopoiitau empire sub- ;Five points 

Terted 236 France 

CoQstantius and CoQstantine 8«. b7. G. 

Controversies. iGeneva 

Arian 9&» 105G»^Tman Calvinists 

Arminian 345Guostics 

Baptismal 350 God-denying apostacy 

Deistical 3a6jGod's dispensations mysterious 

Easter 48, 49 Greek church 123, 



234 
123 

247 
244 

27 
1£5 

98 
431 

28 
266 
207 

41 
407 

21 
103 
181 



Eustathiau 

Goverament and Discipline 

Manichean 

Meletian 

NestoriaQ 

Orig»u 

Pelagian 

Popish 



94 



24, 41 

111 

61 

347 

314 

313 

407 

28 

47 

14S 

1.86 



H. 



353 Hamilton Patrick 
75 Heathen Calumny 
94 Heresies of primitive Christians 



106 

95 

103 

290 



Puritan 



304, 397 



Uuguenots 
Huss John 

Ignorance 
imageMforship 



323 
52 
27 

294 

227 



I. J. 



125, 182 
127, 145, 184 



llifDEX. 



lodependfcnts 




387 


Persiaa 


90 


ludnl^rncc's 




180 


Papal 212, 


2^2, 267, 292 


Infallibility of the Pope 


164 


176 


Pilgrimage 


181 


Infant Baptisnn 




75 


Poland 


317 


Infidelity refuted 




421 


Polycarp 


62 


Inquisition 




2U 


Popery 


V 167, 289 


Irish Ma«;sacre 




•Sdb 


Pope's Bull burnt 


243 


James VI. 




32t 


Pope's Dominions 


156 


Jeiome of Prague 




22V 


Povf er of the Bishops 


96 


Jesuits 




271 


Presbyterians 


406 


Jewisli opinions 




46 


Prester Joha 


121 


Juliau 




89 


Piophecy 


146 


L. 






Providential acquisitions 434 


Laurentius 




81 


Purgatory 


73,145, 179 


Leonists 




228 


Puritans 


303, 395 


Literature 




404 


Q. 




Lollards 




232 


Quakers 


385, 407 


Lorci'^ Day 




43 


R. 




LucarCyrillus 




287 


Reformation. 


241 


Luthes' 




242 


Denmark 


261 


Lutherans 


297, 


407 


England 


255 


Luther's Ne*^' Testament 




246 


France 


254 


Luther's Propositions 




242 


Germany 


242 


• M. 






Italy 


254 


Maccail Hugh 




329 


Scotland 


257 


Marcus Pius 




S2 


Sweden 


252 


Maryland 




397 


Switzerland 


249 


Mass 




43 


Reformed Dutch 


406 


Mead Matthew 




359 


Regular succession 


354 


Means lo introduce the Millen* 




Religious iustitutiens 


410 


nium 




431 


Religious revivals 


333, 398 


Metho<iists 


389, 


407 


S. 




iHiiitary arman'ents 




213 


Schism 


128, 233, 354 


Miraculous gifts 


4 


, 71 


Scotch Covenant 


327 


Mohaiiimedaaisoi 




119 


Scotland 


G22 


MouachisiTi 


^3, 


207 


Secession 


332 


Moravians 




380 


S< ven Sacraments 


187 


N. 






Societies. 


410 


Netherlands 




317 


American Board of Foreign 


New England Synods 




405 


Missions 


419 


Nonconformists 


309, 


353 


Baptist 


418, 419 


O. 






Bihle 


414 


Objections to popery 




188 


Church 


417 


Op{.oa<-{\ts of popery 




224 


Colonization 


420 


Opp'-^st'un to the Protestants 


291 


Education 


412 


Or * lahon tripartite 




360 


London 


416, 417 


Ori*utal Philosophy 




48 


Magazines 


414 


P. 






Methodist 


416, 421 


Paganism and Christianity 




112 


Moravian 


416 


Papal supremacy 145, 159, 


165, 


175 


Paris 


418 


Papists 




408 


Religious Tract 


413 


Paulicians 




22H 


Se ram pore 


416 


Penance 


111. 


145 


Sunday School 


413 


Pennsylvania 




398 


United Foreign 


420 


Persecutions. 






Wesleyan 


418 


Heathen 29, 50, 58, 61 


, 78 


Spiritual enjoyments 


437 



IN^EX. 



gjiperstitioo 


109. 123 


Vaudoi» 


3U 


Switzerland 


313 


Virginia 


402 


Syood of Dort 


318 


W. 




T, 




Waldeases 213, 


229 


Terror 


204 


War against the Protestants 


261 


Tetzel 


241 


Wickliffe John 


227 


Transubstantiation 


126, 145, 178 


Wishart Geoige 


324 


typography 


236 


Ziska John 


231 


^asaGustavas 


253 


Zaiaglius Ulriji 


249 



ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. 



INTRODUCTORY. 



THE history of the Christian Church comprises 
the most interesting and splendid topics for contem- 
plation in the annals of our globe. If the study of 
general history be one of the best means of mental 
expansion; if an extensive acquaintance with Biogra- 
phy be a copious source of self-knowledge — it follows, 
that of all the departments of historical record, that 
which includes the government of Jehovah in con- 
nection with the disciples of the Prince of Peace, must 
be the most instructive and important. 

To review the moral transformation which has 
been developed in the world since that august Pen- 
tecostal morning, when in Jerusalem, in every lan- 
guage, Peter and the disciples '^ spake the wonderful 
works of God;*' briefly to retrace the divine dispen- 
sations by which the grand design of redemption has 
been evolved ; and to display the gradual progres- 
sion of the church of Christ towards that period, when 
'• the light of the moon shall be as the light of the 
sun, and the light of the sun shall be sevenfold, even 
as the light of seven days ;'' can be neither a useless 
nor a superfluous employment. 

Here we shall behold the most astonishing con- 
tradictions, under the government of infinite wisdom, 
all combining to produce the same beneficial result; 
in the methods by which the Great Head of the 
Church has directed all her affairs, we shall perceive 
the Redeemer exalted; from the fortitude, patience. 



A ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. LECTURE L 

virtues and triumphs of suffering Martyrs, the timid 
oppressed disciple may be encouraged ; from the 
labors, energies and zeal of Apostles, Reformers and 
Missionaries, the slothful may be excited to activity 
and diligence, and the faithful Servant must be ani- 
mated to nobler exertions for the cause of him 
" who died that we may live ;" and from the aw- 
ful end of many who have with unhallowed hands 
touched the ark of God, we maybe induced to trem- 
ble lest we should be hardened into the spirit of per- 
secution, or ingulphed in the abyss of impenitence 
and despair. 

i rom contemplations upon the visible kingdom 
of Jesus, in the successive ages through Y*^hich she 
has passed, we may deduce every species of moral 
and spiritual improvement. The perfections of God, 
as illustrated in her narrative, are adapted to excite 
equal fear and confidence; the mercy of the gracious 
Saviour has so often interposed for the deliverance 
of his tried and stedfast disciples, that no one can 
reasonably be agonized; the graces vfhich inspire and 
adorn the Christian, are manifestly demonstrated to 
be of celestial origin by the wonderful effects which 
have flowed from the possession of them— thus devo- 
tion, hope and a similitude to him-' who was holy, 
harmless, and undefiled^' are engendered, and we 
become '^followers of them who through faith and pa- 
tience now inherit the promises."' 

What loas the stcite of the vjorld 07i that morning when 
''theLordivas received up into heaven^ and sat on the right 
hand df God r' 

The greater portion of \he civilized and explored 
countries of our globe were tributaries to Rome ; their 
morals formed a mass of indescribable turpitude, and 
their pretended religion was' the most preposterous 
and senseless idolatry. Even their philosophers, with 
scarcely an exception, were little m.ore elevated ei- 
ther in the rationality of their conceptions, or their 
purity of conduct : and the Epicurean system, which 
w^as the nlost extensively prevalent, and obtained 



INTRODUCTORY. J 

the most numerous enrolment of dev^otees, comming- 
led all the absurdities of the most debasing Atheism 
in principle, with unbounded practical sensuality 
and corruption. The Jews alone appeared under a 
different character; while the other nations were 
enveloped in tangible darkness, light beamed upon 
them; not\yithstanding, errors of the most pernicious 
nature infected all orders of the people, and the dis- 
putation of the Sadducees and Pharisees tended only 
to augment their delusions.— Pharisaic traditions 
which made the commandments of God of none effect, 
were the entrance, by which the people travelled to 
Sadducean infidelity and thence to Epicurean licen- 
tiousness. Of those sections of the world, which the 
conjoined ambition and cupidity of Rome had not 
grasped, little is known ; but that record w^hich has 
survived the destruction of time, evinces that in prin- 
ciples, manners, appearance and civilization, they 
were probably inferior to the most degraded and 
wretched tribe of our Aboriginal Americans. 

At this period, about the year of the world 4000, 
in Judea resided a being in human form, of the most 
extraordinary character. The instructions which he 
delivered, were all sublime, novel, decidedly oppoG= 
ed to the sentiments and habits which then prevail- 
ed, and totally destructive of their longer continu- 
ance : these doctrines he enforced by matchless au- 
thority, and verified by the most stupendous mira- 
cles. From the hatred which his opinions excited, 
he was unjustly and ignominiously murdered ; having 
previous to that event, predicted his premature and 
cruel death, the instruments who should be permit- 
ted to slay him, disclosed his restoration to life to his 
twelve disciples, and commissioned them at a subse- 
quent call^ to itinerate through all the world, pro- 
mulging as they travelled, iiistruction for the igno- 
rant, reformation for the vicious, and redemption for 
the lost, merely by believing the " glad tidings," the 
good news, which they were enjoined to preach ; 
promising them, at the time of their appointment to 



'1 ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. LECTURIlI I. 

this arduous employ, that " in his name they should 
cast out devils, speak with new and unknown tongues, 
take up serpents unhurt ;" drink poison without in- 
jury, and he capahle of healing all manner of diseas- 
es, to authenticate the message which they v* ere di- 
rected to deliver to the benighted idolater and de- 
praved bacchanalian. Jesus had also assured his 
disciples, that as the infallible consequence of the 
publication of the doctrines which he taught, they 
should experience great opposition ; but that his 
cause should ultimately triumph, to banish Atheistic 
darkness, the orgies of idolatry, and all the dominant 
corruption of the human famii}^ He ascended on 
high, and left his apostles to realize the verity of his 
divine missio?i. 

Now, Jesus Christ did live, die, rise again, and ma,- 
jestically disappear from Judea, in conformity v/ith 
the narrative in the New Testament ; or the evan- 
gelical history is fabulous. If it be replied, that no 
such being ever resided among the Jews, then a vast 
majority of the most splendid and blissful events in 
the annals of the world, have no anterior cause ; that 
is, all the transactions of the civilized nations, during 
nearly eighteen hundred years, have existed without 
any commencement, or concatenation : and what is 
more astonishing, this same Jewish nation, among 
v/hom he is related to have been numbered, are ex-' 
pelled from the land of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, 
according to his prediction ; in every age, in every 
generation, in every country, of all climates, colours, 
languages, periods, scattered through the habitable 
globe, almost universally feeling an inextinguishable 
hatred to that Jesus who was cruciiied by their an- 
cestors, and manifesting an insuperable aversion from 
all those v/ho profess to believe in his doctrines, and 
to obey his commands ; that is, they abhor that which 
never existed, and are most inveterately malignant 
ap:air.st a non-entity. Admit this consequence, and 
all the miracles in the holy scriptures dwindle into 
insignificance, contrasted with the magnitude of that 



INTRODUCTORY. J 

pTOtligj to Vvliich Infidel credulity flies for refuge.-^- 
J3eny the truth of ancient history, 'which thus repre- 
sents the state of the world prior to the destruction 
of Jerusalem ; all the past becomes a blank, and 
reliance upon human testimony a delusion. But as 
this principle in operation would immediately pro- 
duce a dissoJution of society, it requires no argument 
to demonstrate that it is fallacious. 

If, on the contrary, we affirm', that Jesus Christ 
lived according to the evangelical narration, we are 
involved in a sir-ale alternative— either the results 
which the Saviour declared should attend Apostolic 
preaching, have been Avitnessed hj the successive 
generations of mankind, or no such consequences 
have ever actually existed. It is" a point perfectly 
indifferent, which of the positions is selected, be- 
cause both must inevitably conduct the impartial 
judge to the same eventual conclusion. Deny that 
these effects have accompanied the promulgation of 
the Gospel — then, who subverted the Pagan Idols ? 
Vy'ho dethroned the Heathen Mythology ? w^ho razed 
the altars of superstition ? what extinguished the fire 
of human sacrificial victims ? w ho transformed the 
Gladiator's Aceldama into a temple of devotion .^ 
what so metamorphosed the human family that no 
person could probably be discovered, certainly no 
audience could be collected, even to hear a faithful 
and plain detail of the authorized, riotous and unhal- 
lowed abominations, w^hich constituted the glory and 
the attraction of the Bacchanalian and other solem- 
nities .^ Who influenced the Roman Empire to be 
called after the name of Jesus Christ, and to per- 
petuate his honours by regularly dedicating every 
seventh day to his praise, and by celebrating sacred 
institutions " in remembrance" of him ? 

It cannot be affirmed, that these changes occurred 
from the fluctuations of human opinion; because this 
mutation wag gradually exemplified, notwithstand- 
ing ceaseless opposition to prevent it, and the most 
unremitting, artful, and energetic measures, to eter- 



b ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. LECTURE L 

nize the ancient system. Suppose twelve men in the 
United States should coalesce to attempt the re-es- 
tablishment of the diversified absurdities of antiquity ; 
allow them wealth amply sufficient to secure them 
against the vicissitudes of dependence and penury ; 
grant them the possession of all the stores of intellect 
and the powers of eloquence ; assist them by all the 
advantages of the typographic art; and p rmit them 
to publish their doctrines, to engage in tneir abhor- 
rent orgies, and to exalt their J upiier, their Bacchus, 
their Venus, without restraint and' without persecu- 
tion — every person instantaneously perceives, that a 
greater folly could not enter the blind and mor- 
bid imagination of man ; yet this is indescribably 
more plausible, than that which we see, and hear, and 
know ! The inference is irresistible, that twelve 
" unlearned and ignorant men," without any of those 
beneficial appendages, could not possibly have been 
" more than conquerors." But through the instru- 
mentality of the Apostles and their fellow labourers, 
idolatrous statues have been consumed in the flames ; 
the theogony of the Ancients is remembered only as 
a subject of ridicule and contempt ; Pagan altars no 
longer smoke with unhallowed incense ; the festivals 
of cruelty are no more exhibited, and beastly licen- 
tiousness has been banished from those regions, in 
which the doctrines of Christ and his Disciples il- 
luminate the understanding and sway the heart : and 
these effects have been produced, although the pre- 
judices of antiquity counteracted, the pride and cu- 
pidity of interested Priests repelled, the Imperial 
majesty, armed with invincible power resisted, and 
wTetchedness, disgrace, persecution and death, over- 
whelmed the Teachers of Truth in every form, and 
with the most terrific horrors. Hence we are forced 
to conclude that the primitive Christian Instructors 
were supernaturally assisted, and consequently that 
their contest was divine, supported by an invisible 
energy, and prosperous through omnipotent co-ope- 
ration. 



INTRODUCTORY. 7 

If the result to which this brief review has con- 
ducted us, be the natural and the sole conviction of 
our judgments, it is evident, that the history of" the 
church of God, which he purchased with his own 
blood" is the most dignified, interesting, and moment- 
ous topic which can engross our attention. Here is a 
cause of heavenly origin, sustained by supreme inter- 
position, and bearing in all its features, and in all its 
progression, the stamp of its eternal Author : so that 
we may justly say, during the examination which it 
involves — -' This is the finger of God." 1. 

All that can certainly be known of the Christian 
church until the death of John the Beloved, is com- 
prised in the Acts of the Apostles and their Epistles ; 
but a correct and lucid understanding of the doc- 
trines of the primitive Disciples, their miraculous 
qucilificatioRS, the government of Christ's mystical 
body, the heresies which arose during that era, the 
persecutions which they suffered, and the opposition 
which they experienced, will enable us to form exact 
ideas of the subsequent departure from " the faith 
which was once delivered unto the saints." 

Thence the history of the Redeemers Kingdom on 
earth until the reign of Constantine, and the as^es 
of darkness which overspread the nations nominally 
Christian, until the commencement of the sixteenth 
century ; in connexion with the predictions record- 
ed in the sacred Oracles, will be successively delin- 
eated. The progress of that brilliant flood of light 
which the Sun of Righteousness incited Luther, Cal- 
vin, Zuingiius, Knox, Cranmer, and their coadjutors to 
pour upon the nations which were immersed in ig- 
norance and corruption, will then be pourtrayed. 
After which the general influence of the Reforma- 
tion, a theme equally delightful in retrospect, as 
exhilarating in anticipation ; and a view of the diver- 
sified means organized to extend universally the 
knowledge of Christ and him crucified, with particu- 
lar reference to the advancement of "Pure and un- 

1. Appendix I. 



8 ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. LECTURE L 

deiiled religion" in these confederated Republics, will 
complete the design of these Lectures. 

The wisdom and mercy of the Saviour of Sinners 
are equally elucidated by the adoption of a popular 
address, as the most eihcient method to enlighten 
and impress mankind. From their muliifarioiis and 
active engagements, many persons possess little lei- 
sure and less inclination to read and mediiate even 
on those subjects which conduce to their everlast- 
ing peace; but by this medium their minds are expand- 
ed and their hearts cheered — the presence of others 
uniting in their reflections relieves them from the 
dullness of solitude, and they easily imbibe at once 
that accumulated intelligence which is abstracted 
from a variety of books, that they miglit realize nei- 
ther patience nor opportunity effectually to peruse. 

It is proposed therefore to select the most popular 
and striking facts only, to notice those stars of the 
first magnitude who have successively shone in the' 
Christian constellations, and thence to deduce those 
instructions which shall establish our faith in Divine 
Providence, our hope in redeeming mercy, our con- 
viction of the divine Government in our world, our 
resignation to the disposals of the King of Saints, and 
our inflexible resolution to imitate the examples of 
them who through much tribulation having entered 
the kingdom of heaven, are now in the beautiful 
vision of God resounding the incessant and eternal 
chorus, ^' Worthy is the Lamb that was slain; blessing 
and honor, glory and power, be unto him that sitteth 
upon the throne and to the Lamb for evei*. — Amen.'^ 

What benefits may be anticipated from a review of 
ecclesiastical history ? 

I. A complete antidote to unbelief 

The annals of the Christian church, are equally 
adapted to slay the proud Scorner's atheistic tenden- 
cies, and the timid Disciple's unbelieving terrors. We 
scan the record, and we mark the presence of the 
supreme Jehovah. He who decides with rationality, 
can no more attentively reflect upon the historical 



INTRODUCTORY. 



pages of Christianity without a resistless conviction 
that he who said " let there be light and there was 
light, has also commanded the light to shine out of 
darkness, to give the light of the knowledge of 
the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ,''^ 
than he can confute his own personal identity. But 
it is a melancholy, lamentable truth, that men gene- 
rally are altogether ignorant of this most necessary 
source of intelligence — hence they pretend to Infide! 
scruples, because they shun the illumination in the 
beams of which their doubts and scruples would 
vanish. 

The timidity of a sincere disciple may be fostered 
hy similar negligence. We should deem it highly 
dishonorable for a child not to feel interested in 
gome information respecting the residences, habits, 
opinions and character of his Ancestors; important 
effects may flow from his intimate acquaintance with 
their past history ; his corrupt propensities may be 
counteracted by the remembrance of their piety, 
and his virtuous resolutions may be fortified by the 
example of their courage in adversity, it is much 
more the duty of every Christian to know the pil- 
grimage of his Predecessors in the faith ; and hence 
the study of the holy Bible is continually urged up- 
on us with the utmost earnestness, hy precept^ " Search 
the Scriptures ;" and by example^ " The Bere'ans wx^re 
more noble than those of Thessaionica, because 
they received the word with all readiness of mind and 
searched the Scriptures daily, whether these things 
were so." While we do not exalt the fragile records 
of the Church by human pens, to the authority or to 
an equality with the imperishable dictates of super- 
nal inspiration, it may be admitted that the former 
are supplementary to the sacred Oracles, and should 
maintain the second rank in our regard and attention. 

In the human heart naturally is found a disposition 
to disbelieve the divine existence, to discard the su- 
premacy of God, to deny our obligations of obedience 
to his commandments, and to disown future retribu- 

B, 



10 ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. LECTURE L 

tlon.— The volume of celestial revelation was pro- 
miilged to exterminate these irreligious principles 
and sensibilities from the soul ; and to implant sub- 
lime, consistent, reverential sentiments concerning 
the Godhead; with enlarged views of our character, 
duties and destinies as men. This native iniideiitj 
is banished by the word of God, and in its stead a 
vital faith is substituted. It is not presumed that 
similar effects would result from the most amplilied 
knowledge of Ecclesiastical History; because faith 
cannot be generated, nor can its efficacy be sustain- 
ed without the word of God; but as a Coadjutor, 
the records of the Church present innumerable and 
most cogent arguments to arrest the influence of our 
unbelief, and to give energy to that faith "which 
overcometh the world. " Nevertheless it must be 
remarked, that no doctrine taught by any Expositor, 
no ceremony practised by Christians of any age or 
country, no government or laws which have been 
established at any period, should be admitted as au- 
thoritative, unless they are sanctioned by " Thus 
saith the Lord ;" and no example must be imitated, 
unless it flowed from "the same mind which was also 
in Christ Jesus.^' With this proviso, in the history of 
the Christian church, appears such multiplied proofs 
of the power, wisdom, interposition, justice, and mer- 
cy of God, that every species of unbelief must, under 
the operation of their influence, when duly scrutini- 
zed, be completely confounded, if not totally extir- 
pated. Thus an additional alterative is obtained a- 
giiost the mortal poison which creeps through our 
veins, and which must be extinguished or we die for 
ever. 

//. The spirit of acceptable devotion. 
In the most eventful and perilous storms of perse- 
cution, with which the Lord permitted his sheep to 
be agitated and worried, it was a proverb, that be- 
c ime at last, from its long experienced truth, a Chris- 
tiaii axiom, " the blood of the Martyrs is the seed of 
the church.^' In this aspect, how worthy of all our 



INTRODUCTORY. 11 

devotion and confidence, does that King of Saints 
appear, who from the conflagration of his adopted 
chiklren could produce the conversion of their exe- 
cutioners, who by the corporeal murder of one Chris- 
tian could quicken blind, dead idolaters, to spiritual 
sight and life ! Are jour affections dull, your intel- 
lects benumbed, the powers of the soul torpid ? — 
fly to Jerusalem. Hear Stephen, the Proto-Martyr, 
whose wisdom and spirit were irresistible, and who 
" full of faith and power did great wonders and mira- 
cles" — mark the rage of his envenomed Judges, they 
gnash on him with their teeth — listen to his defence : 
watch him — his eyes are elevated to the heavens ; 
those heavens he saw opened, and the crucified 
Messiah enthroned in celestial glory. The rage of 
his enemies could no longer be restrained, they si- 
lenced his eloquence by their vociferation, stopped 
their ears, forcibly seized him, dragged him out of 
the city, and there stoned him into Paradise. His 
dying confidence^ " the Son of Man standing on the 
right hand of God" to receive his spirit; his lasticords^ 
the prayer of affection for his deluded assailants.— 
Every particle of this narrative inspires devotional 
sensibilities. Here the presence of the adoreible 
Jesus, "Him who is exalted Prince and a Saviour," 
in his people's distress is unequivocally attested, to 
encourage our confidence— here the natural enmity 
of the human heart against revealed truth is distinct- 
ly exemplified to excite our remorse and vigilance 
against the intrusions of this unhallowed temper— - 
here the spirit of Christianity is triumphantly dis- 
played, in disarming the injured of the most powerful 
passion of corrupt human nature, revenge^ and in trans- 
forming the fury of malediction into the transports of 
filial and believing imploration, that we may remem- 
ber the value of prayer, when we combine with Ste- 
phen's dying intercession, the subsequent renovation 
and labors of Paul — ^and here the decisive superiority 
of the religionof Jesus to all other systems of theolo- 
gy and morals which have ever been devised among 



12 ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. LECTURE L 

men is irrefragably certified, as it imparts to its pos-- 
sessors a tranquillity which injustice cannot interrupt, 
and which an unexpected and merciless death cannot 
diminish. These views are more than suificient to 
educe all the ardors of praise, the fervour of love, and 
ceaseless ebullitions of gratitude to him who can thus 
regenerate the soul, and qualify it for an admission 
into those mansions of bliss which he is gone before 
to prepare for them, " the everlasting kingdom of our 
Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ.^' 

Who can hear a Martyr expressing his contempt 
for " all that earth calls good. and great," contrasted 
with the approbation of the Redeemer, the Son of 
man "who shall judge the world in righteousness,'' 
and not feel the incapacity of things terrestial to sat- 
isfy the desires of the immortal soul ? and their insig- 
nificant value, when compared with that " good hope 
through grace" which terror could not shake, and 
which the "midst of the burning fiery furnace" could 
not consume? Who can listen to an outcast from 
earth,, proclaiming the conquests of redemption, and 
"the unsearchable riches of Christ," to the obdurate 
sinners who have unjustly exposed him on the cross, 
as food for birds of prey, and not admire the impress 
of a gracious Saviour's hand ? Who can stand around 
the stake to which are chained the despised disciples 
of Jesus of Nazareth, view the flames which destroy 
their tortured limbs, and hear the warblings of their 
dying hallelujahs, without corresponding emotions in 
his soul.^ On scenes like these we may gaze with 
conflicting sensations of rapture, until, like the dis- 
ciples travelling to Emmaus, " our hearts burn within 
us," while the Lord walks with us in the way, and from 
the pages of his servants' history, more lucidly opens 
to us the Scriptures. Dead indeed must be the sen- 
sibilities of that man, who can behold these august ev- 
idences of Christianity without solicitude, when he 
scrutinizes his own different situation ; and cold must 
be the feelings of that disciple who can pass by like 
the Priest and the Levite, and enjoy no sacred , 



IN'TRODUCTORY. 13 

warmth, when he contemplates the chariot of fire 
which wafts the triumphant Behever from great trib- 
Illations to the New Jerusalem. 
///. A himinons commentary upon the Gospel of Christ, 
: To the sacred volume we are instrumentally in- 
debted for all our intellectual expansion, and all our 
social superiority over those nations where the Sun 
•of Righteousness has not yet arisen with healing in 
his wings. The truth cannot be too often repeated, 
cannot be too deeply impressed upon all descriptions 
of men, that the moral maladies of the human family 
admit but one mode of cure, and the evils which 
originate in sin have hitherto been mitigated only by 
the Balm of Oiiead, the diffusion and reception of 
the Gospel. Hence, every proper attempt to cor- 
roborate its truth, to illustrate its doctrines, and to 
enforce its injunctions, must be beneficial. But to 
what sources shall we apply for confirmation of the 
Book, except to the histories which are a continua^ 
tion, though written by fallible and uninspired men, 
of the divinely revealed oracles } whence can we 
more precisely ascertain the purport of our standard 
of faith and practice, than by investigating the opin- 
ions of all those who have received it as an infalli- 
ble Arbiter, and by comparing their decisions with 
it, thence to educe our own conclusions } how can 
the precepts of Christ derive higher exemplary sanc- 
tion, than by a delineation of that practical conform- 
ity which has been shewn to them in all ages by the 
most dignified members of the human family, and by 
an exhibition of the advantages which have invari- 
ably accompanied unreserved obedience and fidel- 
ity to the law of Christ } 

It has been sometimes intimated, that christians 
professedly receive the gospel ffom a sinister motive, 
which designates them hypocrites^ or from a weak in- 
tellect, which supposes them incompetent to form a 
correct judgment. May not this odious insinuation 
be confuted } Since the apostolic era, or at least 
smr.9 the miraculous gifts to the church have been 



14 ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. LECTURE I. 

DO longer experienced, the votaries of Christianity 
dread nothing when contrasted with their enemies, 
either in numbers, virtue, or illumination : and it will 
"be no small acquisition, could this effect alone be 
produced by a review of Ecclesiastical History — an 
unshaken conviction that with the sincere reception 
of Christianity is indissolubly combined, all that 
which can infuse devotion, purify the heart, enlarge 
the understanding, promote present comfort, and 
implant the assured anticipations of felicity everlast- 
ing. In this portion of the annals expanded for the 
inspection of man, the sacred volume is copiously 
elucidated. Every perfection of the Deity is dis- 
played ; all the attributes of the Mediator's govern- 
ment are unfolded ; the mysteries of Redemption are 
exhibited j the declarations of Prophecy are fulfilled ; 
Man appears in all the dignity and perfection, of 
which our nature in this inferior state probably is 
susceptible : here we behold demonstrated, "' that in 
the way of righteousness is life, and in the pathway 
thereof is no death" — ^the pilgrimage to Canaan is so 
lucidly marked, ■ that the traveller is cheered with 
additional resplendency, and the gates of Paradise. 
are brought v/ithin the vision of his enraptured soul 
and ineffably enlarged capacities. Thus admitting 
the divine word as our only authorized standard of 
all religious opinions and actions, yet v/e shall dis- 
cover in the progressive stages of our course, contin- 
ual reason to adore the High and Lofty one who in- 
habits eternity, to love the munificent Saviour, to 
honour the blessed dead who have died in the Lord ; 
and shall receive confirmation of our faith, and in- 
struction in our duty, while our hearts ennobled and 
enlightened by these grand exemplars, may thereby 
" grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord 
and Saviour Jesus Christ." 

IV. The proper introduction to all civil history. 
A compendious narrative of the mutations through 
which the church has passed, forms the most appro- 
priate accompaniment for the Bible of truth, and 



INTRODUCTORV. 15 

should be universally perused as the only sure guide 
to ail other historical anoals. This would reduce 
ail our knowledge into regular order ; but according 
to our usual system, an inversion has been establish- 
ed, and that which should be first, is either last or 
totally obliterated. 

If every book is characterized by defect, except 
the volume of supernal revelation, and if that defect 
is proportionate to the distance at v/hich it is re- 
moved from the centre of perfection; how ir0portant 
is it, especially to youth, that ere corruption com- 
mences its unhallowed dominion, the pure light 
should irradiate the heart, and the noblest of men 
be viewed as examples. We introduce our j^outh to 
the sacred scriptures as the first Book, and instead of 
sanctioning the effects wliich it produces, hj a course 
of reading Avhich may equally instruct, interest, and 
corroborate the salutary impressions educed by the 
holy doctrines and lives of the departed saints, we 
transfer their attention from Mount Zion and the 
heavenly Jerusalem, to Greece and Rome, and the 
pages of those fables, which can have no other ten- 
dency tiian to vitiate their principles, while it simul- 
taneously augments the innate corruption of the 
heart. 

The object of " the glorious gospel of the ever 
blessed God," is to awaken in the soul of man that 
" fear of the Lord which is the beginning of wisdom ;" 
by recalling to the reminiscence of the forgetful, the 
thoughtless, and the obdurate sinner, the immensity 
of the divine perfections, and the truth of our re- 
sponsibility. . Hence a mind not predisposed thus to 
behold the government of Jehovah in all sublunary 
affairs, might scrutinize all the records connected 
with profane history, without knowing any God but 
the phantom of a mythology as absurd as it is defil- 
ing, and without contemplating any exemplars except 
men whose predominant passions and uniform con- 
duct, instead of being calmly pourtrayed, should 
never be adduced, except as a beacon to cautidn ; ( 



16 ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. LECTURE L 

until at length, the stupifying potion has almost if not 
entirely expunged the prior impressions engendered 
hj divine Truth : but a knowledge of Ecclesiastical 
History, would on the contrary increase the infiaence 
of the verities which a perusal of the sacred oracles 
might have imprinted on the heart ; and therefore. 
an acquaintance with the prominent facts w hich have 
occurred amid the revolutions of Christianity, is not 
only proper, but indis^pensable. 

Is it obvious that the moral qualities of man are 
of the highest regard, and demand our primary at- 
tention ; and that nothing adventitious, whether in 
intellect, or station, or acquisitions, is truly deserving 
of esteem, except it contributes to render the pos- 
sessor more useful and beneficial in this state of pro- 
bation, and to imbue him with superior qualifications 
for the immortality before us, when the corporeal 
powers shall be stilled by the grasp of death, and 
inclosed in the oblivious recesses of the tomb ? Then, 
to what sources of information must we apply for 
correct ideas of the Deity, especially in his govern- 
ment of the world ? Undoubtedly, to those histories 
in which his perfections are ever recognized, and 
the whole train of diversified change is attributed to 
the divine permission, or direction, or immediate in- 
terposition. But this grand stimulus to virtue, the 
impressive reality of the divine omniscience, is either 
diminished or forgotten in all other records ; and 
this general position will apply to every other truth, 
the operation of which is .intended to glorify God, 
and to promote the w^elfare of men. To the holy 
scriptures we must ever primarily refer fbj* all that 
knowledge which is requisite to our sanctification 
and peace ; and if this instruction be all-important, 
it follows, that it is a most incumbent duty, to assist 
the influence of these doctrines by the sanctions 
which they derive from their actual display in the 
lives and actions of those who professed to have been 
governed by them. Hence, it is incontestable, that 
a mind fraught with moral and religious influence, 



INTRODUCTORY. 17 

and an enlarged acquaintance with the history of the 
Church of Christ, is much more prepared to peruse 
with advantage the annals of the world; and although 
the whole tenor of the author's narrative might in- 
duce a thoughtless reader to suppose that " there is 
no God," or at least to forget the exactitude of his 
dispensations, and the minuteness of his attentions 
to all the affairs of mankind ; yet from the vivid and 
permanent sensibdiiies excited by the Gospel, and 
the delineation of its effects as embodied in the Mar- 
tyrs and ileformers, he will be disposed to admire 
the control of that supreme, invisible hand, which 
primarily impelled, and which still regulates the ma- 
chinery of the Universe. 2. 

V. A treasury of self—knoivledge. 

We have often admired the saying of the antient 
Philosopher, '-^ know thyself :'''' and we are frequently 
admonished that ^' the proper study of mankind is 
man:" admitting this truth, the most efficacious mode 
to attain this knowledge must be instantaneously 
approved. If the history of the world exhibits man 
in all his variegated hues, and of course enables the 
beholder accurately to estimate his diversified qua- 
lities ; if in biography, his characteristics are por- 
trayed with perfect individuality, and his features 
are distinctly depicted; indubitably, these points 
are much more advantageously and precisely ascer- 
tained in the records of the Christian Church. The 
good and the evil are so indiscriminately blended in 
profane history, that it is very often almost impossi- 
ble to separate them ; and it is very common for per- 
sons through this combination to contract an equal 
fondness for the vile as the precious, until the influ- 
ence of this unhallowed amalgamation becomes in a 
measure incorporated in their own hearts and prac- 
tice. 

This pernicious consequence cannot attend the 
proper study of Christian history. In every stage, in 
every important occurrence, in every character of 

2. Appendix II. - 

C 



18 ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. LECTURE L 

notice and interest, the line of demarcation is so 
plainly drawn, that it cannot become obscured. — 
The distinctions between truth and error, vice and 
virtue, rectitude and injustice, barbarism and phi- 
Ian throphy are so invariably maintained and so lu- 
cidly exhibited, that it is impossible for the most 
superficial observer to commingle them. Consequent- 
ly in every step of his route the Traveller finds a 
source of knowledge in application to his own cha- 
racter; and his mind is insensibly, yet additionally 
impressed, with the importance, the benefits, and the 
celestial origin of the sacred books. In the annals 
of the church of Christ, the virtues of which man is 
capable are exemplified in their most fascinating ap- 
pearance ; and the vices to which sinners are prone 
are displayed in all their undisguised deformity. — 
The natural darkness which beclouds the human 
mind, and the depravity which sways his soul are 
clearly discerned; while in all the effulgence of 
meridian splendour, we witness the expulsion of the 
mental gloom, and admire the wondrous transforma- 
tion wdiich opens the blind eyes and whitens the 
Ethiopian's skin. Christianity expands her archives, 
and proclaims man, a creature destined for an im- 
mortal existence, this alone gives to ecclesiastical 
history an irrefragable and an incalculable superi- 
ority over all the other details of nations. Every 
page is fraught with serious recollections ; by which 
^Ye are reminded of the divine government, our per- 
sonal obligations, our ineffable responsibility, the 
misery of an exposure to the wrath of the Lamb, and 
the extatic peace which accompanies the expe- 
rience of the divine favour. The successive charac- 
ters which are depicted, furnishing either a caution 
to alarm or an example to imitate, convince the mind, 
without a long process to analyze the composition ; 
because the particles though combined are so dis- 
tinct that the grandeur and simplicity of virtue are in- 
tuitively separated from the tortuous baseness of 
vice. Thus, as in a glass, we behold the secret move- 



INTRODUCTORY. 19 

ments of our hearts, and the almost mysterious con- 
tradictions which adhere to the human character; 
and when it is subjoined, that since the period of 
Constantine's reign, the history of the Saviour's king- 
dom inchides all that which is truly interesting in the 
affairs of men, we have an insuperable argument for 
the Course of Lectures now proposed. 

If it thus appear evident, that an acquaintance 
with the events which have transpired during the 
existence of the Christian church is the most proper 
introduction to the perusal of the other annals of our 
globe ; that it is one of the most ample sources of self- 
knowledge ; that it affords a most lucid commentary 
upon the sacred volume ; that it furnishes a strong 
antidote to unbelief, and nuraires the spirit of ardent 
and acceptable devotion ; it requires no additional 
recommendation to urge our scrutiny of the promi- 
nent circumstances which in the successive ages of 
Christianity have occurred ; especially as not amuse- 
ment only but illumination is sought, and not instruc- 
tion alone but also our melioration may be obtained. 

However, it must be recollected that we are about 
to survey a very extensive field, to examine contro- 
versies which have agitated nations, and divided the 
members professedly of the same household, and to 
investigate doctrines, opinions, characters, ceremo- 
nies and institutions, on the correctness of which 
many may have already decided. It becomes us 
therefore, to divest ourselves of our preconceived 
prejudices, that we may derive from this research, 
that spiritual edification which the Mariyrology of 
the Saints and the triumphs of Reformers are calco- 
ed to produce ; even from listening to the perverse 
disputings of men, that we maybe established in the 
faith and hope of the Gospel; and that the wretch- 
edness which has attended the last terrestial dai^s of 
Persecutors may inspire us ivith a holy aversion from 
all those feelings and excitements which are incom.- 
patible with Christian charity; without v/hich, all 
eloquence, all knowledge, all power, and all solfer™ 



20 ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. LECTURE L- 

ing " profit us nothing, but are sounding brass and a 
tinkling cymbal." If our meditations shall educe 
these effects, we shall not regret the hours devoted 
to an examination of the progress and influence of 
Christianity from that glorious Pentecostal morn to 
the present period ; while the narrative of past ev- 
ents will radically impress the conviction, that we 
indulge only the anticipations of certitude, when we 
exult in the speedy approach of the reverberations 
of that blissful trumpet which the seventh angel shall 
sound, and in answer to which ^' the great voices in 
heaven" shall say ; '' the kingdoms of this w orld are 
become the kingdoms of our Lord, and of his Christ ; 
Alleluia, for the Lord God Omnipotent reigneth, and 
he shall reig-n for ever and ever." Amen, 



The Apostles and Evangelists — the doctrines and disci- 
pUae — tlie pei^secutions — aiid the progress of the church 
daring the first century. 



The history of the Christian church during the first 
century, is chieliy comprised in the Acts of the Apos- 
tles, and the epistolary part of the New Testament. 
The command of the ascending Messiah, which en- 
joined upon the Apostles, that " repentance and re- 
mission of sin, should be preached in the name of Je- 
sus Christ, beginning at Jerusalem" wgs strictly fulfill- 
ed: for immediately after the day of Pentecost, the in- 
spired followers of immanuel commenced the pro- 
mulgation of those celestial doctrines, which have 
illuminated and metamorphosed the world. 

The stupendous results of Peter's first sermon, of 
Stephen's martyrdom, and of Paul's conversion were 
accelerated and augmented by those identical meth- 
ods which the enemies of the truth adopted to inter- 
rupt and exterminate them. Persecution erected 
its hell-incarnadined banner and severed the Apos- 
tles ; driving them with relentless fury into all sec- 
tions of the Roman Empire. By this dispersion, "the 
glorious Gospel of the ever blessed God" was re- 
sounded from India to Spain, and from the Danube 
to the Lybian deserts. Few are the records of the 
primitive disciples which have survived the corro- 
sions of seventeen centuries — ^but some facts may be 
collected, from which their dispositions, the features 
of the truth which they believed, and the distinctive 
characteristics of the christian church can be ascer- 
tained. 

/. The Apostles and Evangelists, 

After Stephen, James the son of Zebedee died by 
the sword of Herod. Of his exit, an interesting and 



22 ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. LECTURE II. 

marvellous fact is detailed. The man who had drag- 
ged him before Herod's tribunal, when he perceived 
his submission to the barbarous and unjust sentence 
which doomed him to death, struck with remorse, 
and suddenly converted by the Spirit of Truth, was 
turned from the power of Satan to God, confessed 
the Lord Jesus with great boldness, and w as con- 
ducted with the Apostle to the same block ; having 
implored James' forgiveness, having heard the Apos- 
tolic " Peace be to thee," and having received the 
kiss of charity, they were both beheaded together: 
exhibiting the noble fruits of apostolic example, and 
the blessed efficacy of redeeming grace. 

James, the author of the Epistle, who by his extraor- 
dinary religious qualifications had acquired the name 
of the Just, w as forced by his enemies to ascend the 
pinnacle of the temple, there to declaim against that 
Christianity, to the faith of which he had been asto- 
nishingly instrumental in adding converts — when thus 
exalted, the eyes of his mind being enlightened, he 
avowed, ^' that Jesus Christ was sitting at the right 
hand of God, and would come again with power in 
the clouds of heaven." They commanded him to be 
hurled from the battlement, and then began to stone 
him— his last ivords ; "Lord God and Father, I be- 
seech thee for them, they know not what they do" — 
his noble eulogi/^ a Priest's vociferation ; " Cease ; the 
just man is praying for you" — his imperishable epitaph^ 
the testimony of Josephus; "that the murder of James 
w^as the destruction of ill fated Jerusalem." 

Of the seven other Apostles no records remain, 
except a general tradition that in varions parts of the 
globe they successfully perforined the duties of their 
high vocation, until the malignity of idolatrous bar- 
barism commuted their terrestial labour for heaven- 
ly rest, and the "crown of glory that fadeth not away." 
Andrew is related to have been crucified, after hav- 
ing displayed the utmost fervour against the prepos- 
terous worship of the Heathens, and an almost incre- 
dible constancy during the terrific preparations which 



CENTURY 1. 23 

were made for his suspension on the cross- — com- 
mi:igling with all the most solemn recollections of 
his xVlartyr's death, the utmost expansion of Christian 
benevolence. 

Peter's wife received the honour of martyrdom, 
prior to the Apostle's death ; as she was conducted 
to ibe place of execution — ^* Remember the Lord" — 
cried the saint — and soon afterwards he w^as called 
to exercise the same christian magnanimity and af- 
fectionate recollection. The history of that period 
assures us that Peter and Paul triumphed on the 
same day or in rapid succession. Peter having been 
crucified with his head reversed, and his beloved 
brother decapitated. What a brilliant vision — -the 
Barbarian could dismember his body, but could not 
shiver the crown of righteousness from his head! 3. 

John survived all his brethren ; and after, as the 
ancients narrate, he had been boiled in oil, and 
drenched with poison, he was banished to Patmos 
to be starved — but there he found Jehovah Jireh, 
and at length was restored to his former residence at 
Ephesus, Avhere he died in the Lord. 

Nothing more accurately, lucidly, and sweetly de- 
picts the spirit of those primitive ages, than the apos- 
tolic sermon which the superannuated, enfeebled, but 
glowing John constantly repeated on every Lord's 
day in the assemblies of the saints, " Children love 
OH'^ another." This he declared was " the one thing 
needful." It is a source of the most pungent regret 
and painful humiliation, that the dying injunction of 
the last of the Gracious Redeemer's associated ser- 
vants has not uniformly and incessantly been exem- 
plified among his successors. 

//. The doctrines and discipline. 

The moral aspect of the world during this period, 
exhibits the most surprising revolution conceivable; 
which was effected, notwithstanding the united op- 
position of every diversified enemy. 

Learning and ignorance, licentiousness and idola- 

3. Appendix IIL 



24 ECGLESIASTICAL HISTORY. LECTL^RE IL 

try, prejudice and bigotry, ferocity and antiquated 
consecrations, armed with the resistless authority of 
the Roman empire were roused to the bi tile ; never- 
theless, the impotent, despised, unlearned Fishermen 
and Tentmakers sustained by him who on Calvary 
proclaimed, "It is finished" — vanquished every foe. 
Where they walked, diseases fled ; when they spake, 
the benighted understanding was enlightened, the 
corrupt inclinations were reformed, the sensual af- 
fections were purified; — where they sounded the 
Jubilee trumpet, the God whom the nations knew 
not was received, the Saviour of whom they had not 
before heard was trusted and loved; and the barba- 
rism of debased selfishness was transformed into the 
purest philanthrophy — thus were the passions sub- 
jected to reason, the rebels against God bowed to 
their hitherto unknown Creator ; they who shuddered 
at pain were changed into monuments of patience ; 
and they who would not admit either the gloomy 
word or the sable imagery of death to be introduced 
in their presence, now benignly smiled amid its most 
appalling terrors, and meekly exulted in their ap- 
proach to the land of blissful immortality. Yet the 
church possessed no terrestrial dignity or civic pow- 
er ; these were her decided enemies ; and all that 
Christianity could claim was almost exclusively cir- 
cumscribed within the poor of the world, or the 
undistinguished mass of national society. 

To what causes must such stupendous effects be 
imputed ? 

1. Their faith. — All history coincides with the New 
Testament, that the doctrines of the cross of Christ 
were universally the sole topics of Apostolic and 
Primitive Preaching . That Messiah, who is despis- 
ed and rejected of men, was, in their estimation. 
King of Kings, and Lord of Lords : that baptismal 
covenant, which is disregarded from infidelity, was 
then most conscientiously and publicly avowed ; and 
the cross of Christ was their only hope, and boast, 
and consolation. 



CENTURY I. 25 

The eilicacious atonement of the merciful Jesus 
then conBtitiited the basis of acceptance with, God, 
and the unceasing source of solace and of song. It 
formed the corner stone of all their experience, of 
all their belief, and of all their preaching. The 
proposition at which modern pride revolts, and with 
which modern reason is disgusted, then com.bined 
the burden of their hymns, and the theme of their 
silver-tongued eloquence — " Christ died, the just for 
the unjust, to brini^ us sinners near to God." How 
shall a sinuer be righteous before the Lord ? was the 
inquiry daily propounded, and in reply continually 
illust'iated. The phantom of human merit, and the 
visions of supererogatory good works, were not in- 
cluded in the creed which they adopted ; all their 
justification originated in faith through the Lord Jesus 
Christ, as their infallible Instructor, their eiiicacious 
Mediator, their righteous Law^giver, and by him they 
had access to God through one Spirit, Hence, all 
the pungency of their reproof, and all the thunder of 
their admonition, invariably tended to demolish ev- 
ery hope of pacirication with God — of which Imman- 
uel did not form the only basis. But how might this 
knowledge be acquired ? How^ could a creature 
dead in trespasses and sins, be made alive to God, 
to himself, to the Savidr, to eternity ? To this they 
replied, by directing the enquirer to the Holy Ghost, 
as the enlightener, and the sanctifier of the world. — 
That humiliating topic, regeneration, was their fun- 
damental position. " Ye must be born again," was 
continually reiterated ; and to every objection re- 
specting the instrument, the -mode, and the possibili- 
ty, they gave but one overwhelming retort—" Ex- 
cept ye be converted, ye cannot enter the kingdom 
of heaven — Thus saith the Lord." 

As long as these heaven-born doctrines were 
plainly and energetically enforced, so long the church 
retained its purity, the preaching its success, and 
the nations their edification — but when the ridiculous 
perversions of men concealed these celestial verities, 

D 



26 ESCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. LECTURE II. 

and buried them under the rubbish of fantastic spec- 
ulation, and the chills of sepulchral unbelief — then 
the honors of the only Redeemer were appropriated 
to legendary saints — then the favour of heaven wa& 
guaranteed for corporeal austerities or pompous ec- 
clesiastical donations — then the peace of God was 
insured, not for faith and holiness, but for pecuniary 
mulcts— -then the regeneration of the Holy Ghost 
was swallowed up in that most odious of all blas- 
phemous substitutes, priestly absolution ; and then 
the entrance to glory everlasting depended not, as 
they asserted, upon the name written in the Lamb's 
book of life, but upon a Pope's bull. The glorious 
Reformation dissipated this blackness of darkness ; 
and the resurrection of the same august doctrines 
from the oblivious vault in which the Papists had en- 
tombed them, has produced similar magnificent con- 
sequences — the melioration of the nations where 
they have been received, enjoyed and practised. 

The whole economy of grace, so constantly unfold- 
ed by, the pristine preachers in the Christian Church, 
was exactly adapted to demonstrate the glory of God 
in the redemption of man. While they humbly con- 
fessed their sin, their helplessness, and their state of 
perdition of which they were effectually convinced ; 
while ihey relied alone for salvation upon the aton- 
ing blood, the perfect righteousness, and the preva- 
lent intercession of Jesus, as their only hope of 
heaven ; and while they acknowledged themselves 
sinful and vain, without the constant regenerating 
and purifying influences of the Holy Ghost, which 
were their common privilege — they were constantly 
reminded of their obligations to the Father who 
loved them in his Son— to the Saviour who died for 
their redemption, and to the Comforter who enliven- 
ed, supported, and sanctified them^ — thus combined 
in their experience and practice, they worshipped, 
believed, and adored the God of Christianity, in con- 
tradistinction from the idols of their hands, and from 
the detestable mythology which they had hitherto 
honoured and trusted. 



CENTURY f. 27 

2. TTie discipli7ie which they administered. — The prim- 
itive church was a community of brotherly love. 
Ecclesiastical tyranny then was unknown— none ex- 
isted who were lords over God's heritage — it would 
have been impossible, where all things were in com- 
mon, and where the love feasts precluded the sem- 
blance of dictatorial authority. Evident indeed are 
the superlative charity and heavenly mindedness of 
these our Christian ancestors. They were all of one 
heart and one soul — their most odious crime, the ar- 
dour of their brotherly affection— their enemies' most 
indignant charge against them, their superiority to 
all things terrestrial. The societies of Christians 
were at that period all of them independent churches — 
electing their own Bishops and Deacons — admitting 
their own members, and exercising the various duties 
attached to their social relations, without appeal to 
any external authority — but exhibiting the most mag- 
nanimous, endearing, and universal affection to all 
who loved the Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity. The 
Lord's day was ever observed, the Lord's death 
weekly commemorated, and the fraternity of Chris- 
tians exemplified in the strongest of all bonds, a 
union not only unprecedented, but absolutely unim- 
agined by any mortal who had previously existed. 
///. The heresies. 
The best donation from the hand of God deterio- 
rates when committed to men. Even in the all per- 
fect revelation of the Gospel, this lamentable effect was 
displayed. Jesus Christ, the Sun of Righteousness, 
as " the light of the world," beamed his ineffable 
splendour over our moral hemisphere ; but human 
inventions quickly wrapped the radiance in clouds. 
Grace, unfolding all the unsearchable riches of Christ, 
filled the world with its ecstatic harmonies, but the 
pride of sinners robbed it of much of its worth and 
blessedness. In the review of that period, so long 
since elapsed, and the attempts of our own age, the 
reflecting mind is irresistibly arrested by the resem- 
blance, or rather the identity. 



28 ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. LECTURE IL 

^'' Both examples certify to us how prone is the hu- 
man heart to undervalue the mediation of Jesus, and 
the gloiy of redeeming grace, Avhile it attempts to 
substitute instead of the gospel method of salvation, 
the delusive schemes of a self-righteous spirit." 

Two classes of heretics arose even during the A- 
postolic age. Widely did they differ in their errors, 
but both extremes joined in the same centre. 

The Gnostics propagated that the Son of God was 
not properly man, and that the death on the cross 
was oidy an appearance. This principle at once 
exterminated all the essential qualities of Christiani- 
ty; and rendered all its most sublime and peculiar 
doctrines a mere nullity, without foundation in exist- 
ence, or argument to support ; because if Christ died 
not, he rose not, he ascended not, he lives not to in- 
tercede, he cannot return to judge. 

The Ebionites marched to the other extremity: 
they asserted, that the Lord Jesus was a mere man, 
only the Son of Joseph and Mary. Of course, they 
discarded the atonement, and endeavoured to estab- 
lish their justification by the works of the law. PauPs 
epistles they rejected from their canon, and thus 
like their modern descendants, charged an inspired 
Apostle with error and vice. One party would not 
believe in the Mediator as Man, the other would not 
admit that he possessed any dignity superior to hu- 
manity—and between them both, it may be declar- 
ede, as Mary complained in the Garden — ''they have 
taken away my Lord, and 1 know not where they 
have laid, him." The doctrine of expiatory substi- 
tution, which is the grand corner stone of the gospel^ 
was thus entirely removed : the Gnostics destroyed 
it by denying the human qualities of our Master; and 
the Ebonites, by opposing our Lord's divine nature, 
banished all the value of his sufferings. 

The Gospel and Epistles of John were written 
expressly to counteract both these heresies ; and no 
stronger proof can be given or required of the sen- 
timents of the Christians of the lirst century, respect- 



CENTURY I. 29 

ing those who thus demolished the temple of God, 
than the ftict, that the Apostle John, when entering a 
public bath for refreshment, upon seeing Cerinthus, 
one of the most furious and malignant of these heretics 
in the bath, said to his friend — " Let us flee, lest the 
bath should fall, while Cerinthus, an enemy of truth, 
is within," and hastily departed ; thus expressing his 
disapprobation of his opinions, and his abhorrence 
of his pestilential errors. 

IV. The persecutions. 
These commenced when Peter and John, by the 
power of Jesus of Nazareth, cured the lame man in 
Solomon's porch, at the entrance of the temple in 
Jerusalem. Jews and Gentiles, who never consented 
in any other object, cordially combined to extirpate 
the disciples of the Lamb. Herod and Pontius Pilate 
must both unite, to malign and condemn the Lord of 
life and glory ; and the disciples were assured, that 
they should not escape the prior allotment of their 
divine Saviour. Many minor conspiracies against 
the church, are noticed in the Acts of the Apostles, 
and in the Epistles ; but the first general persecution 
originated from the conflagration of the city of Rome, 
Nero, a proverbial monster, had, for amusement only, 
commanded that metropolis to be set on fjre ; and 
after it was nearly consumed, to avoid the reproach 
of his infernal barbarity, for he played the harp to an 
old Grecian song, exulting in the desolation ; he 
hypocritically accused the Christians as incendiaries 
of the empire. It is impossible to peruse with pa- 
tience or serenity, the still remaining monuments of 
the inconceivable agonies which resulted from that 
merciless ev^ent. Peter died, and Paul was behead- 
ed, during its ravages ; and the following description 
will enable us to form an indistinct idea, of the hor- 
rific calamities which defenceless and meek Chris- 
tians, such as those upon all of whom was great 
grace, were called to endure. " They were slain 
with the sword, or burnt with fire, or scourged 
to death, or stabbed with iron darts, or bored with 



30 ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. LECTURE IL 

augers, or hanged, or crucified, or drowned in sacks, 
or flayed, or bereft of their eyes, and tongues, or 
stoned, or stripped and left to freeze, or starved, and 
in every way dismembered, for the scorn and deris- 
ion of the world — -insomuch that a man might see the 
streets of the cities full of men's bodies, the old and 
young together, with female corpses naked, in heaps, 
to which interment was forbidden. They were cov- 
ered with the skins of wild beasts, torn by dogs, 
stripped, covered with combustibles, hung up in va- 
rious parts of the cities and villages, and then fired, 
that they might serve for lights in the night, for their 
relentless murderers." By all these various modes, 
was the malignity of Hell exhibited upon earth — un- 
til after four years, the Lord permitted Nero to be 
degraded, who fled into eternity by his own hand, 
and his wretched remains v\^ere dragged about Rome, 
in deeper disgrace than the Christians had ever ex- 
perienced, the abhorrence of the good, and the exe- 
cration of the wicked. 

The ravages of persecution through the edicts of 
Domitian, were more widely extended and more cru- 
elly afflictive. To him, persons of all ranks, stations, 
characters, and ages, were equally abhorrent. His 
highest d«lio;ht was to discover and to inflict the ut- 
most tortures which humanity could sustain, and his 
individual employment to kill flies, when even his 
ruflian hirelings were fatigued with butchering Chris- 
tians. His own domestics, even his relatives, could 
excite no relentings, and he who commanded men to 
be barbarously murdered, and in the most lingering 
form, merely that he might be glutted with their ex- 
cruciating agonies ; he who boldly and diabolically 
wished that the whole human family possessed but 
one head, that he might exterminate thern at a blow ; 
permitted no interruption to his almost incredible 
extravagancies, until the righteous Judge of all the 
earth called him from the throne of his earthly tyr- 
anny, to the supreme bar, there to answer for " the 
things done in his body." 



CENTURY i. 31 

F. The progress of the Church. 
It might be rationally asked — amid these storms, 
could the defenceless ark survive ? Yes — the heav- 
enly Pilot conducted her. safely and triumphantly 
through the perils of the deep. The measures v/hich 
were concerted to extinguish her name and to oblit- 
erate her existence, by the superintendence of inii- 
nite wisdom amplified the number and the sphere of 
her servants, and daily added to the church them 
who should be saved. " The blood of the Martyrs 
was the seed of the Church." The executioner be- 
headed one man, and ten believers hallowed the spot 
— From the cross one was transferred to the crown, 
and a multitude sprung up around the consecrated 
scene — One saint marched through the fire to Para- 
disc, and hosts of soldiers filled with \he unquencha- 
ble love of the Redeemer shed abroad in their hearts, 
arose to avenge his death, by following his exam^ 
pie. Until from zeal and persecution, each combin- 
hig to produce identical results— all the then ex- 
plored habitable globe displayed the trophies of the 
gospel, and resounded the honors of the Lamb 
that was slain. From Csesar's palace to the miry 
dungeon, from Rome to Britain, and thence to Africa; 
from the Nile to India, and Tartary, the messengers 
of salvation had transported the exhilarating Angelic 
chorus, " Glory to God in the highest, peace on earth, 
and good will to men ; for unto you is born in the 
city of David, a Saviour who is Christ the Lord 1" 

This condensed narrative excites serious reflec- 
tions. For the primary establishment, the efficient 
promulgation, and the extensive progress of revealed 
truth, in so short a period, and amid such appalling 
opposition, impel us to admire the wondrous dispen- . 
sations of God ! From darkness he educes light, 
confusion he transforms into order, and in his incon- 
ceivable benevolence to the wretched children of 
Adam, so " manages all mortal things," that the con- 
spiracies of malign depravity and corrupt ignorance, 
against his glory and christian enjoyment, under hi^ 



32 ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. LECTURE IL 

all-wise controul, become the instruments to (level- 
ope the honours of his government, and the medium 
through which the followers of the Lamb obtain, even 
in this vale of tears, " the peace of God which pass- 
cth all understanding'' — ^and that most splendid and 
enrapturing of all terrestrial acquisitions — an evan- 
gelical capacity to " read their title clear to mansions 
in the skies !" 

" Here is the faith and patience of the snints !'' 
The influence of the grace of God, as exhibited in 
the experience and practice of the Redeemer's dis- 
ciples, presents the most dignifying moral specta- 
cle ! In contrast with the Apostolic Fishermen 
and Tent-making Evangelists, all the intellectual 
expansion, all the noblest virtues, and all the boast- 
ed eloquence of Greece and Rome, dwindle int6 
comparative insignificance. In vain do we explore 
their volumes, thence to derive any knowledge of the 
hope full of a blissful immortality ; and a debasing, 
revengeful passion realizes no diminution when we 
peruse their jejune arguments against unhallowed 
indulgence. But who is that Judge, r^rrayed in a]l 
the magnificence of Imperial majesty, and armed with 
all the jurisdiction of absolute power ? That is Felix, 
the Roman Governor: And who is he, in bonds, 
standing before him with the physiognomy of more 
than mortal philanthropy, and the dignity of saint- 
like innocence ? the prisoner is Paul of Tarsus ; a 
slandered, persecuted, despised, and detested Naz- 
arene. Listen ! to a Tyrant almost proverbial for 
his arbitrary injustice, he proclaims the necessity of 
righteousness ; to a Voluptuary, wallowing in bestial 
licentiousness, he enforces temperance ; and to the 
Arbiter of his mortal destiny, he depicts, with all 
the infallible solemnity, and all the unmitigable ur- 
gency of a divinely commissioned Instructor, the in- 
dispensable . necessity of transferring his attention 
from the judgment seat on which he was then sta- 
tioned, to that "judgment to come ;" at which dread 
period, and before which august tribunal, Paul and 



CENTURY I. 33 

Felix would both answer, the Apostle for his faith- 
ful preaching, and the Governor for his practical im- 
provement. 

But this triumph of reason and Christianity over 
all other eloquence and illumination, the Judge trem- 
bling before his alleged criminal, is ineffably trans- 
cended by the virtues which like a resplendant halo, 
were displayed by them who " were called Christians 
first at Antioch," Who can depict in all their varied 
'value that constellation of excellencies which through 
the gospel of Jesus, stand as imperishable mo.iu- 
ments of the benefits that are derived from the appli- 
cation to the soul of the things of Christ, by -• the 
Comforter, the Spirit of Truth ?" That wondrous 
Faith which almost unveiled the invisible future— 
that exhilarating Hope which vanquishes all. the evils 
attendant on this state of " vanity and vexation of 
spirit" — that ardent love which supremely centering 
in the Saviour of sinners, diverged in all its purity 
and in all its forceful good to the "household of faith," 
the members of which were adorned with the Re- 
deemer's similitude — that indescribable humility of 
temper, patience in suffering, self-denial in indul- 
gence, resignation to the divine will, combined with 
a loftiness of fortitude, courage, activity of exertion, 
perseverance in duty, and an unwithering freshness 
of evangelical spirituality, which rendered them as 
unconquerable in their " good fight of faith," as they 
were finally triumphant in their labours and contest. 
In them is a graphical portraiture of a disciple of the 
Lamb, delineated in the most attractive features, in 
the most beauteous tints, and in the most lucid col- 
ours, appealing to every Christian sensibility, and 
irresistibly compelling the desire, like them to live, 
like them to die ! 

But their terrestrial pilgrimage w^as an almost per- 
ennial course of every species of affliction, which '-the 
love of Christ shed abroad in their hearts" alone en- 
abled them to sustain. Agitation mingled with anti- 
cipated torture was part of their daily bread; tears 

E 



34 ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. LECTURE IL 

augmented by the pressure of death, sometimes im- 
mediate in experience, sometimes protracted until 
life was extinguished by lirgering pain always uncer^ 
tain in period, constituted an essential, often the 
chief portion of their diurnal drink; and with these 
were combined all the common calamities incident 
to mortality. Can we therefore review the glorious 
results which accompanied the dissemination of sal-* 
vation by the Messiah; can we peruse the heart- 
rending records of those excruciations, and not feel 
and cultivate the highest degree of gratitude to the 
Almighty Sovereign of the Universe, that all the de- 
lights of this Gospel we may enjoy, without their for- 
mer accompanying miseries and horrors ? 

To a Christian of the nineteenth Century, and e- 
specially to a descendant of those Puritan migrants 
who, for the rights of conscience, dared to buffet the 
tempests of the then almost untraversed Atlantic, and 
who erected their t?bernacles where ecclesiastical 
hierarchies and antichristian despotism have never 
displayed their ruthless characteristics ; nothing can 
be more difficult than the attempt to depict the vivid 
represenlarion of the scenes, and to embody in his 
own sensibihties the experience of the Redeemer's 
disciples, during the prevalence of those storms with 
which Persecution desolated the church of God. 
When we retrace the virulent, the unceasing, the 
diversified, and the universal opposition which the 
Gospel of Jesus Christ has received from the na- 
tions among whom it has been promulged — when 
we reflect upon the tortures, ignominy and multifari- 
ous death which have been the invariable concomi- 
tants of that "cloud of witnesses, of whom the world 
was not worthy'' — when we are reminded that the 
grand object of their pursuit was "a city which hath 
fouiidations whose builder and maker is God" — and 
when we contrast the doctrines, the illumination, 
the rlulies. the prohibitions, the promises, the spirit 
and the object of divine Revelation, with the trials 
of them who "endured as seeing him wha is invisible:'^ 



CENTURY I. 35 

who were mocked and scourged, " in bonds and im- 
prisonment, stoned, sawn asunder, tempted, slain 
with the sword, wandered about in sheep skins and 
goatskins, in deserts, in mountains, and in dens and 
caves of the earth, being destitute, afflicted, torment- 
ed" — we are overwhehned with astonishment: and 
are coerced to beheve, that our Ancestors were in- 
duced to suppose that the sacred Oracles, instead 
of being the treasury of •• peace on earth, and good 
will to men" — were like the fabled box of Pandora, a 
casket tilled with every multiform evil and maie- 
diciion, from which even Hope itself was perfectly 
and for ever excluded. With the convictions which 
we possess, that to the extension of the Gospel, the 
civilized portion of the habitable globe are indebted 
for all their intellectual and moral superiority, how 
can we effectually comprehend the narrative of those 
inconceivable tornados of malignant fury, which, 
not like the Angel who scattering death through Se- 
hacherib's army, mingled the whole camp of all cha- 
racters in a solid mass of corpses—but with infernal 
acumen appeared instinctively to exonerate the 
haughty devotee of idolatry, vice and corruption ; 
and to diffuse all its blasting energy upon the humble 
sanctified Christian? Reminiscences of the primitive 
ages of the Messiah's kingdom, and of the ineffable 
calamities in which its citizens were then overwhelm- 
ed, must therefore excite and foster unfailing evan- 
gelical gratitude to the Great Head of the Church, 
w^ho dispenses all "the unsearchable riches of Christ," 
for the support and enjoyment of the present members 
of "the household of faith;" and who has so graciously 
made our lines to fall in pleasant places, that we 
" have a goodly heritage," and enjoy the blissful pro- 
mise, " they shall sit every man under his vine, and 
under his fig-tree, arid none shall make them afraid : 
for the mouth of the Lord of Hosts hath spoken it"— 
Amen. 



The seven churches of Asia — the first and second Apoca- 
lyptic seals—the interior order, erainent Christians, he- 
resies, and the persecutions of the Church during the se-- 
cond century. 



From this period in the annals of the Christian 
Church, all the prominent features of her history, 
are detailed bj the spirit of prophecy; and our faith 
in the authenticity of divine revelation is strengthen- 
ed by observing the wonderful coincidence between 
John's Apocalypse since its original transmission to 
the disciples, and the history of the Roman empire. 

Among the most remarkable of these fuliiiied pre- 
dictions, the epistles to the famous seven churches' 
of Asia, stand a striking and incontrovertible testi- 
monial of the Apostle's supernatural inspiration. 

The magnificence of Ephesus is a fact attested by 
all the ancient historians— and the glory which the 
Church there obtained, by their obedience to Jesus, 
is equally resounded in the primitive age. They 
were nevertheless premonished, that it is highly dan- 
gerous to depart from the living God, were caution- 
ed not to encourage the Nicolaitans, an impure sect^ 
whose doctrines and practices were equally abhor- 
rent and vitiating; and assured that if they did not 
repent, " their candlestick should be removed out of 
its place." Now the temple of Diana is in extinction; 
and of all the Christian houses of prayer— one only 
remains, which is transformed into a Mahommedan 
Pvlosque. A few Turkish families live in great w retch- 
ed =iess among the splendid ruins of Greek, Roman 
and Asiatic grandeur, with not one "household of 
faith;" the gospel, its preachers and ordinances, all 
have vanished. 



CENTURY II. 



The second message was addressed to Smyrna; 
they were- commended and encouraged ; and not- 
withstanding all the inroads of the Arabian Apostacy, 
it is believed, that the body of believers has never 
been at any period totally extinct. At present, the 
spirit of the Gospel is reviving among the descend- 
ants of them who heard the honoured Poly carp 
preach, and who saw the inflexible Martyr triumph. 

The church at Pergamos, which was very sharply 
reproved by her great Head, has scarcely a vestige 
remaining. A few families who are called Christians, 
but whose name it may be feared, is the sole evidence 
of their evangelical profession, reside amid the des- 
olations of this once dignified metropolis, in the ut- 
most misery, and "in the most abject and sordid ser- 
vitude." Thus hath the Lord fought against them 
with '^ the sword of his mouth." 

In Thyatira, no traces of any devotional building 
can be discovered : a few Turks dwell among the 
immense piles of white marble which have survived 
the destruction of centuries ; but the profession of 
Christ is extinguished, and engorged by the reveries 
of the Koran. 

Sardis was the haughty metropolis of Croesus, and 
at one time surpassed in brilliancy and opulence all 
the cities of the East — the church in it is stated to 
have been the first which was formed in lesser Asia, 
and also the first which apostatized from Christianity. 
Now the city is a superlatively grand and very exten- 
sive mass of demolished magnificence, where no tem- 
ple exists to the Redeemer's honour ; where no 
preacher blows the joyful sound, and in v>hich no 
people walk, O Lord, " in the light of thy counte- 
nance." 

The epistle to the church of Philadelphia, is sin- 
gularly prophetic — among them God reproved noth- 
ing, but declared that he would " keep them from the 
hour of temptation ;" no doubt intending the tyranny 
of the Turks ; and it was promised to them who over- 
came, that " they shall be made pillars in the temple 



38 ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. LECTURE IIL 

of God.'' Ill writing the history of the Mohammedan 
irruptions under the Turks, a modern scoffing Infidel 
has most unintentionally corroborated this marvel- 
lous prediction. He says, "that of all the Christian 
churches which are recorded to have existed, Phila- 
delphia alone survives," and as if he had been divinely 
guided to confute his own scepticism, by using the 
very phraseology of the scripture, he adds, '^ she 
stands the pillar of stability, unmoved amid all the 
Surrounding desolations." Here Christianity has al- 
ways displayed something of its purity, and some of 
the buildings hallowed for the worship of Jesus still 
exist; a monument of the protection with which God 
encircles those who " keep the word of his patience." 
Laodicea was, in its prosperous period, one of the 
most populous and superb cities of Asia — •'• she was 
rich, and increased in goods"- — but the Christians 
within her walls were corrupted by the luxuries, and 
chilled by the carnal enjoyments to which they had 
such easy access. Their lukewarmness, and lethar- 
gy, and fondness for the things which are visible, 
produced for them unmingled censure from " the 
Faithful and True Witness." The Lord's declaration 
was wonderfully consummated ; if they would not 
repent, " I will spue thee out of my mouth," Laodi- 
cea has long since been totally demolished ; and 
during many centuries has been, as it is now, merely 
an assemblage of caverns, where wolves and jackalls 
prowl, and dragons, snakes and vipers hiss ; so that 
not only has the ancient worship of God totally dis- 
appeared, and the recognition of a Saviour been per- 
fectly exterminated ; but the district even in which 
this lukewarm church existed, has been so immedi- 
ately cursed by the righteous Judge of all the e rth, 
and so branded with the visible marks of inextin- 
guishable reprobation, that its stupendous specimens 
of architecture are not only utterly destroyed, but 
also by men completely abandoned. Modern visit- 
ers corroborate the truth, that "as they did not then 
hear the voice ©f merciful admonition, noiv every thing 



CENTURY II. 39 

seems as if God had doomed the place, and left it to 
the dominion of Satan." " He that hath an ear, let 
him hear what the Spirit saith imto the Churches." 1, 

The history of Christianity as narrated in the Apo- 
calypse, is divided into three distinct periods ; seven 
seals^ seven trumpets and seven vials. From the era of 
the vision, until the triumphs of Constantine over 
his foes, and the succeeding permanent establish- 
ment of the church, is the Heathen Roman Empire, 
included w^ithin six seals. Thence, the state of the 
Christian Roman empire to the commencement of the 
seventh century, is delineated under four trumpets 
of the seventh seal. Within the three last trumpets, 
is contained a view of the world during the famous 
prophetic 1260 years. The fifth, or first wo-trumpet 
includes the origin of the two Apostacies, Moham- 
medan and Papal ; and the sixth, or second wo-trum- 
pet represents the extension of their sway ; both de- 
tailing Events which have occurred in the Eastern 
empire : and the seventh, or third wo-trumpet, with 
its vials^ depicts the ultimate effusion of the wrath 
of God upon the powers, which in every age perse- 
cuted Christians, and finally coalesced for their ex- 
termination ; and displays in all its horrors the de- 
struction of " the enemies of our Lord and of his 
Christ." 

The paragraph in the sixth chapter of the Revela- 
tion, from the first to the fourth verse, contains the 
prophetical history of the church and the Roman em- 
pire during the second century ; and the first seal 
has almost universally been applied to the general 
diftlision of the gospel. The Lord Jesus Christ is 
represented as a Conqueror — his bow indicating en- 
ergy ; his white horse, the rapidity of his conquests, 
pure and merciful ; and his crown, his royalty and 
triumphs. From the borders of India and Tartary 
on the east, to the iltlantic Ocean on the west, the 
name of Immanuel was known, and honoured as the 
Redeemer of mankind — thus circumscribing ail the 

I. Appendix IV. 



40 ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. LECTURE III. 

cmlized world, and the nations with which the Ro- 
mans held anj intercourse. Who can witness this 
extensive flow of the doctrines of the cross, in spite of 
ail opposition and persecution, and not with rapture 
hail these demonstrations of celestial benevolence ? 

The second seal has been usually referred to the 
Roman empire, from the accession of the Emperor 
Trajan to the close of the century. It was a red 
horse, denoting his bloody character, and his rider 
had power to take peace from the earth by his gre?it 
and tremendous sword. The Roman annals are re- 
plete with the almost incredible slaughters and mas-s. 
sacres which continued without mitigation, and ai- 
,most without intermission, during more than 80 
years. 

The Jews and the Romans, equal enemies of Chris- 
tianity, were permitted to butcher each other with a 
destruction and malignity similar to that with which 
they desolated the Christians. In Cyrene, the Jews 
massacred 220,000 men with the utmost barbarity. 
Around Alexandria in Egypt, and in Cyprus, they 
murdered 240,000 — while the relentless Romans, 
like ferocious beasts fired with rage, attacked the 
Jews at all times, and in all places, until in their 
grand rebellion under Barchobab, who pretended to 
be their Messiah, upwards of a thousand of their foFr 
tified places, and of their largest and most populous 
towns, w^ere utterly razed and destroyed-; 580,000 
men were slain by the sword, besides incalculable 
numbers whom pestilence killed, and famine starved. 

So great was the diminution of the inhabitants 
from these varied commotions and wars, so vast and 
dreadful were the dilapidations upon the prosperity 
and energies of the empire, that even the finally tri- 
umphant Emperors neither congratulated the Senate, 
nor would receive any honour for victory. If we add 
to these deaths, the myriads tortured, mutilated and 
slain by the rufiian arm of infernal persecution — 
we shall immediately perceive the accuracy and the 
miseries of this prophetical denunciation. 



y-E.NTL'RY IL ij 

Which were ihe disthictive characteristics of the 
Ohristian Church ? 

A The interior order. 

1. Their faith was very similar to that of the for- 
Mier period ; the fundamental doctrines already de- 
tailed, v/ere still exhibited and preached in their pu- 
rity ; but towards the close of the century, the intro- 
duction of the ancient Heathen philosophy, with a 
variety of distinctions diminishing the extent of mor- 
al obligation, much deteriorated the simplicity and 
dignity of the principles and practice of the former 
ceiitury. 

2. The miraculous gifts of the Apostolic era were 
still prolonged, though with less frequency ; and were 
more generally displayed in those regions where the 
Gospel w^as primarily introduced ; and of course 
where supernatural attestation was requisite, thau 
among the long established abodes of the Redeemer's 
followers. But towards the end of this age, a great 
degeneracy was discernible in the manners and vir- 
tues of the disciples ; they had multiplied schisms, 
and consequently their vices ; while their friv^olous 
disputations^ only tended to evince, how weak w as 
the tie which bound them to their Lord and Master, 
and to each other, although professedly united to 
''^ the Lamb of God Yvhich taketh away the sins of 
the world," 

3. Apostolic practice generally continued on all 
the more prominent and essential institutions : but a 
variety of minor circumstances connected with the 
church, was partially changed during this centurial 
revolution. " The mystery of iniquity had already 
begun to work," and at length it developed itself 

In Rome, at some epoch not exactly determinable, 
originated the distinction between Elders, Presbyters 
or Bishops. The chlirches which had been collected 
in its vicinity having frequently assembled in general 
association by their delegates, at length selected an 
Elder Brother to preside ; for so influenced were 
these primitive disciples by the humility and affec- 

F 



42 ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. LECTURE III, 

tions of the gospel, that during the former period, it 
required no l^rteses, to preserve order and to repress 
turbaleiice ; but from the increasing numbers who 
attended these meetings, and the necessity frequently 
imposed upon them through the immediate pressures 
of persecution, to contract their deliberations, and to 
expedite their decisions, an influential senior was ap- 
po'f ited, merely to controul any impediments to the 
despatch of business, which might unintentionally 
arise : and to this meek, lowly, persecuted chairman, 
already a Martyr in anticipation, and most probably 
seated on a rock, or coiiio, in one of the unexplored 
recesses of those Christian domitories of the dead, 
near the Tiber, encircled by the catacombs which 
constituted the surest concealment for these refuo-ees 
from Pagan tortures; or in the dens and caves of the 
earth in the provinces, have succeeded Popes, and 
the whole mirror train of x'lnti-Chi istian hierarchs, of 
almost all sects, and disguised under every cloak, 
arid hat, and name, through every intermediate gra- 
dation, from "• Hell-Brand^^^ in the Vatican, even to the 
last Moderator of an Ecclesiastical Trio of " JWenSteal- 
ers^'^ amono; the ^Ihgany moiintai7is. Notwithstanding 
this innovation, the Churches retained so much of 
the Apostolic purity, and the privileges guaranteed 
unto them by Jesus ijhrist, the Lord of Conscience, 
that the disciples of each distinct society of Chris- 
tians, elected their own Bishops and Deacons, admit- 
ted their members, and exercised their power in dis- 
cipline and in the regulation of all their internal con- 
cerns without exterior interference, or the acknow-^ 
ledgement of any terrestrial authority, whom thej 
were obliged by the Gospel either to consult or to 
obey. 2, 

Believers were continually devoted to the evan- 
gelical instruction of the children in the families 
of the Heathen converts ; and the laws of the Apos- 
tO'ic household of faith, were tenderly but strictly 
enforced. Incessantly exposed to the irruptions 6f 

2'. Appendix, V. 



eErvTURY II. 43 

merciless desolation from Iheir malignaDt despots, 

their public assemblies could not admit the coldrtess, 
formality, or inadaptation of a stated ceremonial of 
words ; hence forms of prayer were totally uiikiiOwn 
among the disciples of this century. 

The Lord's day, or the first day of the week, was 
jnot only the general, bat also the sole day of religious 
worship, except that it was partially combined, by 
tsome of the scattered Jewish descendants, with tlie 
observance of the Mosaic Sabbath ; but the festival 
days, appointed to memorialize the legendary saints, 
were at that period non-existent ; having been long 
subsequent incorporated into the Calendar by Pap'^ii 
■ Idolatry. Yet the disciples had deviated into some 
superstitious notions and rites, which the lapse of 
1600 years, and the purifying energy of the august 
Reformation ^ave not eiFectually exterminated. A 
certain indescribable solemnity was supposed to be- 
long to Baptism, which confined the administration 
of that ordinance chiefly to Easter and Y^hitsuntide ; 
and the origin of these names demonstrate the ten- 
dency of the human mind to aberrations from the lu- 
minous path of gospel truth and evangelical simplici- 
ty. Our English epithet Easte'r, is "derived, either 
from the Assyrian Idol Ast'Arte, or the Saxon God- 
dess Eostre, the grand celebrations of which nothings 
were about the month of April ; and Whitsunday was 
so designated, because the candidates for Baptism 
on that occasion, generally wore long white robes ; 
although it appears, from the custom in the early 
ages, the frequent baptism of the convsrts naked^ that 
this garment must have been the appendage of later 
generations. 

The seeds of the Romish Mass v/ere also now im- 
planted, by the rapidly increasing practice winch ■ 
had been introduced, to administer the L^-""^ ::: ' T:p« 
per, and even to transmit the consecrated ei. ^ \, lo 

the sick and dying : and in connection with this de- 
parture from the primitive institution, the doo'nia 
swiftly and extensively was diiilised. that a peculiar 



.44 ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. LECTURE lU. 

sanetilj was attached to a life in celibacy, whick 
eventually conducted to all the Monastic establish- 
ments of the Greek and Roman hierarchies. 

When the Christian religion remained without any 
recommendation from the influence of power, or the 
display of exterior magnificence, how was the exist- 
ence of the gospel perpetuated ? By what terres- 
trial coincidences and contradictions did the Lord 
sustain his cause ? The extent of the Roman empire 
was so vast, that v/hile its government crashed one 
part to atoms, the other was excluded from its coer- 
cion ; and thus the very circumstance which in a 
more confined despotism, according to human esti- 
mate, would have demolished the Saviour's sway. 
augmented its amplitude, and contributed to its pre- 
servation. In the retrospect of this century, it is 
impossible not to remember the remaA:able simili-- 
tud^ between the most striking features of that dis- 
tant period, and the present era. 

. '1 ne immediate successors of the Apostles are re- 
nowned for the dispersion of the Scriptures in the 
various vernacular languages; which constituted tlien 
the grand means to diffuse and prolong the kno\^ - 
ledge of divine revelation, and which has been ve- 
rified in our own generation, to be e€|ually effica- 
cious for the promulgation of the Truth, and the 
progressive enlargement of his empire, who is going 
"forth conquering and to conquer.'^ 

//. The superior Christian ivriters of the second, e- 
qually as of some other Centuries, constitute a very 
distinguished part of the historical detail of the Re- 
deemer's church: and their magnanimity, their learn- 
ing, and their claim upon our undying aflection will 
not be diminished, by understanding the state of Pa- 
ganism, when they sojourned in this vale of tears. 

The various systems of Idolatry received all the 
sanctions of Imperial power, and notwithstanding 
they were becoming increasingly disreputa.ble — yet 
the Apologists for Christianity evinced unexampled 
fortitude when they could dare unlimited earthly 



CENTURY II. 



authority in defence of the truth. Besides, the Hea- 
then Priests and Shrine makers exerted themseivc^s 
in every form and upon all occasions, to inflame the 
r^angainary multitude, thus fortified by sovereign ex- 
ample and defended by Imperial influence, against the 
])assive and impotent brotherhood of the meek and 
lowly Jesus. The lucubrations of Pagan Philosophy, 
the effervescence of Atheistic ridicule, and the ebul- 
litions of Epicurean reproach, ever most amply remu- 
nerated, combined all their powders to sustain Satan's 
throne, and to disgrace by falsehood, or extirpate 
by force, Christsanity from the globe. Notwithstand- 
ing* Celsus vomited forth his blasphemies. Emperors 
enkindled the Martyrs' fires— and bribed Murderers 
tortured malignant ingenuity, to deter by every spe- 
cies of most abhorrent laceration and indecency the 
feeble Christian; the Infidel, the Tyrant, the Ruffian, 
toiled for a non-entity ; still Idolatry w^as diminished 
by the loss of its dev^otees, and the number of sincere 
Penitents incessantly augmented in a geometrical 
ratio ; while the imperishable apologies of some of 
the Martyrs, exposed the absurdities of the Mytholo- 
gical system, in the most luminous manner, to univer- 
sal contempt, and utter abhorrence. The men of 
w^hom we speak were truly eminent '^ children of the 
li2;ht ;" they adorned the doctrine of God our Saviour 
by their personal piety and multifarious labours— they 
promotedthe cause of Christ by their continual writ- 
ings — they sometimes blunted the sword of persecu- 
tion, and always developed the infuriated senseless 
injustice of their Tormentors, by their eloquent apo- 
logies for their Master's religion — they enlightened the 
understandings and exhilarated the hearts of the dis- 
ciples, by their treatises on evangelical doc rJnes and 
Christian devotion ; and at last, suffered the excrucia- 
tions, and obtained the crown of martyrdom, that the 
testimony of their dying blood might seal the evidence 
of their dignified lives. 

Of these, Simeon, Ignatius, Justin, Polycarp, Po- 
thiaus, and Apollonius, were in various forms slain; 



46 ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. LECTURE III. 

but Athanagoras, Theophilus, Dionysius, Miltia- 
des, and Quadratus, were protected of God to die 
in peace. 

The writings of these primitive Christians are of 
the highest value, as evidence of the doctrine, disci- 
phne, heresies, manners and sutferings of the disci- 
pies of the ages in which they lived ; and their testi- 
mony is of additional moment, because of their long 
protracted mortal pilgrimage. Simeon had attained 
120 years when he wascruciiied-Ignatius during near- 
ly forty annual revolutions was Pastor of the church at 
Antiocho Justin had been a renowned Christian in 
all parts of the church almost half a century, when 
he was transported to heaven by decapitation — and 
Polycarp had been the angel of the church at Smyrna 
seventy-four years, probably the very individual ori- 
ginally addressed by John, in the epistle to that body 
of believers. To those, therefore, whose eyes had 
witnessed the various changes in the church, and 
who had participated so actively and prominently in 
all their more general affairs, we may with confidence 
appeal for correct information ; and this equally 
exalts the suffering and unresisting followers of the 
Lamb, and degrades to the very depths of ignominy 
the merciless and unglutted Bloodsuckers who were 
perpetually slaughtering the older generation^ that by 
every refinement of barbarity they might intimidate 
their children from adhering to the cross. But in 
vain- — ^' he that sitteth in the heavens laughed, and 
the Lord had them in derision. The King was set 
upon the holy hill in Zion." 

///. The heresies which troubled the church during this 
cra^ originated in two sources. 
1. The Jewish opinions. A sect arose called the Na- 
zarenes, who mingled a vast variety of Mosaic cer- 
emonial observances with Christianity, and who 
were much attached to the economy promulgated 
by him, who " esteemed the reproach of Christ, 
greater riches than the treasures of Egypt." Al- 
though not numbered with the avowed rejecters ©f 



CENTURY il. 47 

a good conscience, who, •' concerning faith, have 
mule shipwreck ;" yet their opinions and practices 
denied the simplicity and purity of the Gospel, and 
furnished others with arms in which more directly td 
contend against divine truth. 

The grand heresy of the first, subsisted in the se- 
cond century; tks doctrine ivhich opposed or corrupted 
the real and prop sr Divinily of Christ; and it is a so- 
lemn memento to the existing generation, that during 
the iirst 230 years of the existence of the church, any 
man who ^enied our Lord's divine character, was 
not penniltcd to associate in communion with the 
church universal, or to retain the name of Christian, 
A singular fact is recorded concerning this contro- 
versy. Theodotus wlio attempted to revive the dog- 
ma, that our Lord Jesus Christ was only a man, 
was the principal heresiarch. During one of the per- 
secutions-^-he was conducted with some christians 
before the inimical magistrates. His associates open- 
ly avowed their fiith and attachment to their Lord 
aad iVlaster, and were immediately condemned and 
executed. Theodotus as resolutely denied him. Be- 
ing afterwards severely censured for apostacy from 
his God ; he replied, ^' No, I have not denied God, but 
man, for Christ is no more." This opinion, with his ex- 
clusion from the usual tortures to which the Chris- 
tians were doomed, produced a new nomination: the 
God-denying apostacy, '-^ He had neither principles nor 
confidence to bear the cross—" and our modern Scof- 
fers at the Lord Jesus Christ's essentially divine per- 
fections are his exact counterpart. Their love of im- 
mortal souls evaporates in a cold and cheerless sys- 
tem of dry ethics, animated by no missionary fire ; 
and their dissemination of the Scriptures to enlighten 
the ignorant and reform the vicious, is circumscribed 
by a bigotry, which only admits them partially even 
to disperse a frigid and corrupted translation of the 
New Testament ; so that a Humanitarian of the nine- 
teenth, approximates, if not surpasses in error, a 
God-denying Jpostate of the second century. 



48 ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. LECTURE UU 

2. The Oriental Philosophy also conlributed its full 
proportion towards the deterioration of evaiigelicoi 
truth. 

The Montanists were collected bj an infatoatcxl 
enthusiast, who pretended to be the comforter that' 
Jesus had promised. Montanus himself was an ene- 
my to all literature^ and the bigoted reviler of all 
those who did not submit to his dreaming inspiratiooe. 
Believing many of the distinctive verities of the 
Gospel, notwithstanding their numerous and absurd 
additions, the sect which he formed ^ceedinglj 
troubled the church. 

ThePagano-Christian Philosophers probably ef- 
fected the most important injuries and the most per- 
manent corruption of Chrigtianityw They were de- 
nominated Eclectics : their fundamental tenet was, 
that all religions are virtually identical. Their prin- 
cipal object was, to combine the morality of the 
Gospel, with the more refined notions of the Platonic 
philosophy. All the essential doctrines of the cross 
were excluded from their system; and a fictitious 
holiness, an exterior garb of sanctity was substituted, 
which was gradually amplified into all the penances 
and austerities of the Papal mummery. Hence the 
pleas of Pharisaic pride, and the fancies of self-right- 
eousness, mingled with the refined argumentations 
of dialectic Platonism, obscured and partly oblitera- 
ted the doctrines of justification by faith in Christ, 
the sole ethcacy of his atonement and mediation, and 
the absolute necessity of the work of divine grace, 
through the operation of the Holy Ghost, to regene- 
rate the heart and sanctify the life. From these caus- 
es, the purity of sacred truth, and the godliness of 
its Professors, manifested prior to the close of this 
century, direct symptoms of decay. 

But nothing can more obviously exhibit the de- 
basement of the Ministers of the Christian church 
in the latter part of this period, than the controver- 
sy that was agitated from one end of the Roman em- 
pire to the other, respecting the precise day on wliich 



(LEISIXRY 11. 49 

tliey slioiild celebrate our Lord's resurrection. From 
L} oiis to Rome, thence to Ephesus and to Antioch, 
this despicable i'ury raged. 

The Bishop of Rome, not a Bishop in the gospel 
interpretation, but one of the Pope's progenitors, who 
with iiis predecessors had contrived to usurp addi- 
tional jurisdictioii throughout these hundred yean-, 
resolved that this solemnity should be observed ac- 
cording to a tradition which he declared had been 
received from Hermes. The churches of Ephesus 
and the Asiatics, commemorated the resurrection of 
Jesus, according to the day which had been desig- 
nated by Polycarp, who had been taught as John's 
disciple, immediately from the Apostle himself The 
principal question was, whether the crucifixion of 
our Lord should be memorialized on the same day 
when the Jews celebrated their Passover? This fri- 
volous dispute excited every angry passion, aiid 
commenced that dissatisfaction and discord which 
finally divided the Latins and Greeks, into two 
distinct, and often inimical bodies. One of the most 
astonishing facts connected with this circumstance, 
a!id a most lamentable proof of human degeneracy 
and imperfection, is, that they over whom the sword 
of persecution ever hung, suspended by a hair, 
and for whose extinction, the incendiary always 
held the torch ready to kindle the fires of martyr- 
dom, should tlnis debase their pacific religion, and 
debiiitaie their more than mortal energies, by child- 
ish disputations as absurd as they were unimportant ; 
and jet tiiey were sustained with a rancour fittle less 
malignant, than that with which the bitterness of the 
Heathen Priesthood iniiamed the murderous rabble. 
This contemptible controversy eradicated the larger 
proportion of the harmony of the church, during the 
few years witen ^^the Lord gave them rest roundabout 
from all their enemies;" so that between external 
storms and interior discord, we may reasonably won- 
der, how the cliurch could have existed— but it Avas 
(he bush in reality, which Moses onlv saw insvmbol, 

G 



5Q Ecclesiastical history. lecture iil 

and though burniDg, it cannot be consumed, for the 
Lord is in the bosh. 

IV. 1 lie gen oral history of the Church and of its persecu- 
tions^ will include all thai remains of importance in 
the second century : but this comprises those cir- 
cumstances which embody the m.oral features of the 
Ro^nan Empire, as well as of the Christians within its 
boundaries. 

riever might the higlily figurative lamentation of 
Jereiidah the Prophet of 'lears^ have been more apt- 
ly applied, than hj the Disciples of the second cen- 
tury. ^' Our persecutors are SAvifier than the eagles 
of heaven ; they pursued us upon ihe mountains, tiiej 
laid wait for us in the wilderness." 

I'heir situation renders futile all attempts to de- 
lineate the ceaseless malignity, and not only unmiti- 
gable, but accelerating barbarism, which the Idola- 
ters exhibited during the various successive genera- 
tions of that period. Nothing less than the benefici- 
al results which flow from the retrospect, could 
scarcely urge a person imbued with only common 
sensibilities, to explore the heart-rending annals of 
those primitive christians — but truth beckons, and 
her votctries know, that however mysterious and ap- 
parently inextricable the labyrinth, she infallibly con- 
ducts those who follow her, to light and life and joy. 

Th.e persecutions of the second century, may be 
illustrated by the remembrance, that during the for- 
mer age, " the wisdom of this world" had centered 
almost exclusively in the Philosophers of Greece and 
Rome. ¥/ith the unique exception of Paul, thp A- 
postle of the Gentiles, no one of the immediate fol- 
lowers of the Lord Jesus Christ, appears to have op- 
posed to their vain reasonings, a confutation deduced 
from their own absurdities. But after the departure 
of the last of the most noble twelve, John the Belov- 
ed ; when the celestial effusion of the Holy Ghost, 
the extraordinary gift of cloven tongues, like as of 
lire, with the miraculous interpositions of the Great 
Head of tlie Church, had partially ceased ; and whei? 



CEINTt'RY II. 31 

the sublime trulhs, with the august cfuicis of Divine 
Revelation, were developed in all their resplendency 
and righteousness, then the pricees even ot the illu- 
minated Idolaters, submitted all the pride oi leamiiig, 
and all the licentiousness of i^acchanais, to ilie wis- 
dom of the cross, and the sanctity of the gracioTis 
Redeemer's immaculate prescriptions and exfuFiph.:. 

The conversions of Justin, Arislides, and others of 
the Pagan prime devotees, evolved a new era. Evan- 
gelical truth, with her immutable adherents, had been 
supported almost entirely by her own simplicity and 
consistency ; but these new champions of the faith 
transformed the contest between the knowledge and 
worship of the one true God, and the abominable 
mythologies of superstition and Idolatry, wliich had 
hitherto been sustained by a defensive and resisQess 
mode of warfare, into an irresistible assault upon all 
that creed which Pagan Philosophy had promalg; d, 
and carnal ignorance had deemed sacred. 1 he de- 
basing doctrines of the Epicureans a.nd Stoics, were 
contrasted with the holy dictates of the sacred ora- 
cles — the absurdities of Pantheism were arrayed 
against the luminous injunctions of the spiritiialitv qj' 
the Godhead — the arcana of the Heathen Friesihcod 
were displayed as a foil to that radiance wliich 
brings " life and immortality to light, througli the 
blessed Gospel of the ever glorious God^'^-and of 
course, Demetrius and the shrine-makers were a- 
larmed. Prejudice and cupidity, with all that is 
selfish in principle, and sensual in action, felt the 
mortal thrust, and roused themselves to determined 
action. Of this vast combat, which was waged even 
at the foot of the Imperial throne, few memorials ex- 
ist ; but the scattered remnants evince, that before 
the sword of the spirit, wiehled under divine aid, by 
the Literary Martyrs of the second century, Greek 
and Roman Pagans were totally discomfited; and that 
like their more modern successors, the only arms with 
which they could crush undoubted verities, were the 
multifarious torments of relentless persecution. 



32 ECCLESIASTICAL HiSTORY. LECTcKE 111,. 

To a redecting mind of the nineteeotli ccDtarj. a 
question naturally arises ; hov/ could the execrable 
devastations and miseries which Christians suiTered, 
have been permitted by the successive chiefe of the 
Roman empire ? especially if we add, that by the 
forced confessions of their incurably inveterate and 
malignant opponents, they were the most submissive, 
meek, unoifending, peaceable and virtuous inhabit- 
ants under their sway ? 'One answer alone can be 
given ; — the disciples of the Lamb were ridiculed, 
misrepresented and calumniated. 

It is also a fact incontestable, that these ungodly 
machinations were often commenced, and ever in- 
iiamed by the Jews, in all points where their influ- 
ence extended. The whole fury of the scattered 
tribes was ever ingeniously exerted. As the Chris- 
tians professed their plenary belief in the sacred 
Books of the Jews — when persecution unsheathed 
her sword, the descendants from Israel were ofteri 
doomed to the same punishment — to avoid this ex- 
tremity, the Jews never ceased to vilify the follow^ers 
of the Messiah, that they might escape odium and 
torture ; and many of the most abhorrent scenes 
of that terrific period, originated in the same spirit 
which induced their ancestors to crucify the '• Lord 
of life and glory." 

The opposition made to the progress of Christian- 
ity during the second century, originated in one 
source, and produced similar effects ; it may, in all 
its diversified exhibition, be embodied in one word, 
pprs'^rnHon : but it must be developed in its threefold 
operation. 

i Jalamny. — Nothing can m.ore irrefragably dem- 
onstrate the depravity of human nature, than the si- 
militude which exists between the opponents of "pure 
and undefiled . religion," in all ages : — and did w^e 
not sometimes, however impotent their efforts, realize 
their rage even in these United States, we should be 
surprized to know the monstrous excesses with which 
the early Christians were reproached. Contempt 



CCMURY II. 53 

and iniligiialion, in their utmost extensioD, were em- 
] )lo jed by tliose Idolaters, when they avowed thcic 
enmity to t!ie fhoep of the Saviour's fold. 

Tiiey were deiiounced as Atheists ; because they 
would not worship the images made with hands, of 
Jupiter and Bacchus, which idol nothings they de- 
rided, as Elijah scorned the Baal of the Israelites : 
tehey were accused of magic and witchcraft, because 
in them v/as displayed the power of Jesus of Naza- 
reth, to enable his servants, according to his promise, 
to work miracles : they were represented as haters 
of the light, because when their diabolical enemies 
had proscribed tiicm from vrorshipping their Beloved 
and Gracious Saviour by day, they assembled in the 
night ; and because when they dared not meet on the 
iace of the earth, they ventured to pray in its den& 
and caverns : because they addressed each other 
under the Christian epithets of Brothers and Sisters, 
they were depicted as an unbridled community oi 
incestuous associates : the sacrament of the Lord's 
fiupper was transformed, by their misrepresentations, 
into a regular sacrifice of bread, accompanied with 
human blood : and as if it were possible to exceed 
this infernal mass of lies and enmity, the Martyrs who 
preferred a present death in torture and Heaven, to 
iinai apostacy and Hell, were ignominiously reviled 
as self-murderers. 

These varied criminalities were all depicted as 
cemented by the most odious magical operations : 
and as intended to consummate their secret designs' 
and plots of revolt against the Imperial Usurpers, who 
called themselves, and who wished to be known as 
legitimate Rulers. 

Aristides and Quadratus offered their justifications 
to Adrian, and Justin presented his apologies to An- 
toninus and Aurelius. To these literary warriors 
may be subjoined, Tatian, who began the warfare by 
a direct attack upon idolatry ; Theophilus, who un- 
folded ail the abominations of the origin of their 
Gods ; and Hermas, who compared the subtleties 



^4 ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. LECTURE III. 

and insipid trash of the Philosophers, with the suMim- 
itj, harmony, and trath of the Scriptures. But Ap- 
poiionius stands a perennial example of Christian 
fortitude and wisdom.. He was one of the Roman 
Senators, and consequently of the very highest order 
in the Empire ; yet he ventured to pronounce an 
oration even in the Senate, in defence of the perse- 
cuted Believers ; the triumph of truth was sealed in 
his crown of martyrdom. 

An almost incredible fact has survived the desola- 
tions of time— while the most relentless fury was un- 
chained against the genuine Christians, the various 
sects of Heretics enjoyed profound quietude. Tv/o 
reasons may be assigned for this artificial conduct. 
By division, they expected to enfeeble Christianity ; 
and thus they varnished over their persecution, by 
imputing to the true church, the crimes of its enemies 
and apostates. 

Nothing can be more refreshing than the defence 
of Justin Martyr, against the calumnious imputations 
cast upon the children of God. In the apology which 
he offered to Antoninus, he most lucidly and elo- 
quently pourtrays their pious concord, their ardent 
charity, their generous self-denial, their absorption 
in eternity, their unshaken confidence in the Re- 
deemer's promises, their patient submission in every 
trial, their self-humiliation, their hatred of the world 
and its maxims, their unceasing vigilance over them- 
selves, their assiduous culture of all the interior and 
secret excellencies, and their constant preparation 
for the Martyr's flight. 

To demonstrate the utter falsity of the allegations 
brought against the primitive Christians, listen to A- 
thenagoras : " But," says the virtue-armed Christian 
s^age, " if any one can convict us of any crime, either 
small or great, v/e will not deprecate punishment, 
but are prepared to suffer its utmost cruelty : Yea, 
w^e will rather hold to the judgment, that we may be 
punished for the crimes which we have committed. 
No Christian can be a vvlcked man, unless he belies 



CEKTUKY II. 55 

his profession." We can conceive ihat suffering in- 
nocence might thus write ; but it is impossible for 
defenceless guilt, in its utmost hardihood and insensi- 
bility, to assume effrontery sufficient to dare its judge 
to the inevitable consequences of the misery attached 
to assured and immediate conviction. The inquiry 
is, how could so many reproaches have originated, 
and so long have' been perpetuated, unless some 
cause had existed on which to found them ? The 
primitive church was obliged to conceal their ordi- 
nances, and devotional assemblies, from the eyes of 
their enemies. Pursued through every avenue of 
the Empire, without protection, without liberty, with- 
out asylum, without human resource— the wildest 
deserts, or the deepest caverns, were the only tem- 
ples in which, unmolested and feurless, they could 
worship the God of their devotions. Hence", their 
solemnities were enshrouded in sadness and the si- 
lence of the night ; and of course, bore the resem- 
bl'tnce of mystery. This afforded to the Pagan devo- 
tees, the basis of their injurious stigmas against the 
professors of the Gospel. The fatal prejudices thus 
excited, long continued ; Justin was the first waiter 
who unfolded all the simplicity and sanctity of Chris- 
tian institutions, and thus demonstrated the injustice 
of their foes, and the indefensible malignity of their 
persecutions. 

Respecting the slander, that they were privijy ar- 
ranging a destruction of the Imperial Government as 
then established ; the following striking extracts from 
two of the Apologists of that period sufficiently evince 
that the spirit of opposition to Revealed Truth, and 
the allotments of its defenders, are nearly identical 
in all countries and generations. 

" What traces of Atheism can be discovered in 
those who worship an infinite Creator ? How can 
they barbarously immolate human victims to him, 
when they abstain from all animal blood, and cannot 
even endure the recital of homicide ? What ridicu- 
Idus injustice must that be, which transforms the af- 



56 ECCLESIASTICAL HiSTOiir. LECTURE III. 

lections of piety and the most scrupulous coiitinence, 
into abominable incest ? What shadow of a sliade 
exists for the appearance of revoh, among theoi, whose 
only arms are faith, obedience and prayer ? Dtiring 
the long train of envenomed persecutors, all more 
obstinately determined to destroy Christians, than to 
counteract the Scythians and Parthians, what Be- 
liever ever armed himself for deli vera- !ce ? On the 
contrary, although discord was universal ; Rome, the 
Senate, and the Armies, contended for the supreme 
power ; the banner of independence v/as unfurled in 
every province ; seditions were enkindled in every 
department ; and although Emperors were exalted 
and degraded by conspirators ; the Christian alone 
acknowledged the Persecuting Tyrants to be his 
Masters, and preferred the continuance of his pains, 
to the liberation which could not be obtained with- 
out rebellion." The love of social order, the prefer- 
ence of the public good to individual advantage, due 
subordination to the laws, and perfect docility to the 
Imperial edicts, w^hen conscience w as not interested, 
were the characteristic features of those disciples. 
That vre may understand the matter, as well as the 
manner, of the Believers' petitions, one of them sub- 
joins — '^ Christians supplicate the throne of Grace. 
with expanded arms, because they are innocent ; with 
uncovered heads, for they are n©t ashamed ; v/ithout 
a form or promptu, because we pray from the hearty 
that Caesar may enjoy all that C:jesar himself desires.** 
The calumnies, with their authors, would have beeri 
extinguished in utter oblivion, had not the Lord gra~ 
^jiously permitted the triumphant refutations of these 
undeniable witnesses, to survive the " w reck of em- 
pires, and the crush of time." 

If Ave reflect that all those, with innumerable other 
falsehoods, progressively increasing in extent and 
baseness, had been disseminated throughout the Ro- 
man Empire, during nearly one hundred years, with 
no other contradiction than the radiance of the Gos- 
pel, and the faith and patience of the Saints, we shall 



^J. 



ifeeH almost cease to feel astonishment at the horri- 
ble infatuation of that part of the ruffians who glutted 
themselves \Vith Christians' gore, and feasted on the 
torments of excruciated aind expiring humanity. 

2. The blasphemies and ribaldry of the Priests and 
Philosophers^ constitute a very essential proportion of 
that energy which impelled the machine of persecu- 
tion so long and so vigorously to operate. They in- 
ilamed the rabble ; and a Roman com.monalty were 
proverbially cruel : their public shows and most be- 
loved entertainments, which were universal through- 
out the Empire, and which Were continually recur- 
ring, especially in all the metropolitan cities, that in- 
Tariably and necessa^riiy determine the character^ 
taste and propensities of the territories over which 
they exercise influence, were exhibitions and amuse- 
ments, forming a combination of the most unnatural 
indecencies, and the most refined barbarity. The 
glory of the scei^ consisted in the adroitness with 
which the conflicting Gladiators and Captives could 
murder each other, and in the strepxms of human 
blood which incarnadined these Aceldamas. This 
sanguinary disposition becaitie at last so migoverna- 
We, that like the horse leach it cried give, give; and 
as the rapacious grave, still remained unglutted. In 
times of discontent and turbulence, these bloody 
dramas Y^ere performed to quench the popular fer- 
ment; and an ensanguined mob, stimulated by the 
enraged. Bacchanals, Priests,' and Priestesses, sanc- 
tioned by odious, corrupt and despotic Governors, 
who naturally must have been solicitous to bury their 
ceaseless iniquities in the sepulchre of forgetfulnese, 
always could draw upon the Bank of Faith, to sup-, 
ply their raptures as human life exhaled, and Christ- 
ian example was banished. The records of the Mar- 
tyrs point out two modes by which the infernal pro- 
pensities of these inhuman multitudes were often at- 
tempted to be satiated, and which nothing but the 
matchless grace of God could possibly have enabled 
them to endure. The defilement and pollmtion t© 

H 



5S ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. LECTURE IIL 

which the Female disciples were obliged to submit, 
will never be known in full until that day when the 
secrets of all hearts shall be disclosed— but one, if not 
the most applauded act of this grand Theatre of ex- 
ultation in wo, seems to combine every machination 
of fiend-like depravity which could be transplanted 
from Pandmonium to Rome. The harmless Sheep 
were dragged from their dungeons naked, to the im- 
mense and crowded Amphitheatres, and there the 
Brethren and Sisters were urged to slaughter each 
other™ and when at last no torture could incite them 
to participate in this diabolical contrivance, and 
when the cries for blood from all parts of the multi- 
tudes could no longer be resisted— Gladiators and 
Wild Beasts were both unfettered that the Lion's 
roar might be accompanied with the worse than Can- 
nibal shout. Yet all this impetuosity might have 
been restrained; and this dreadful depravation of 
intellect and sensibility might have been repressed 
and healed—had not the supreme atithority not mere- 
ly connived at these scenes, but actually directed 
their display. This developes the master agents of 
these monstrous impieties and horrors, 

3. Impeyial edicts gave the impetus to the battering 
ram with v. hich it was hoped to subvert the super- 
structure of the church, and to rerAove the Rock of 
ages on which its foundation was established. 

The Princes who held the Roman sceptre during 
this century, and by whose instrumentality the church- 
es of Christ were so severely tried in every varied 
form of torture, must be successively arraigned. 

Traj-an. When he assumed the Imperial authority, 
no edicts against the disciples of Jesus existed. The 
laws of Nero had h^.ei\ annulled by the Senate, and 
Nerva had abrogated the infuriated proscriptions of 
Domitian, Still the fury of the outrageous mobs and 
the demands of the bloody Priests supplied the de- 
fect, and as often as the Governors were solicited,, 
they were unwilling or dared not refuse to deliver up 
ianumerable multitudes of the children of God, like 



CSNTURY II. 59 

Sampson of old in the house of Dagon to make sport 
for the Philistines. Notwithstanding all the eulogy 
which has been bestowed upon Trajan for his wis- 
dom, clemency and other Imperial virtues ; it is cer- 
tain, that if his conduct towards the Nazarenes be 
the criterion o^ our judgment, we must pronounce, 
that he was a coniirmed prejudiced Idolater, who 
meditated the total extinction of Christianity. One 
instance of his conduct shall suffice. In BithynJa of 
which Pliny was Governor — the Christians were so 
numerous that the Heathen Temples were frequent- 
ly desolate — yet by the force of power, incalculable 
numbers died in extreme excruciation rather than 
join the orgies of idolatry. Pliny wrote a letter to 
Trajan requesting directions hov/ to act ; his Epis- 
tle is an authentic national document : from it we 
learn, that the Christians were very numerous, most 
exemplarily pious, and inoffensive ; their only crime, 
that at certain regular and appointed seasons they 
assembled to sing certain hymns to one Christ their 
God, and to covenant that they w^ould abstain from 
theft, fraud, falsehood, adultery and murder— -and not- 
withstanding their peaceable demeanour, they were 
sorely persecuted because they would not renounce 
Jesus Christ. This information he declared that he 
received from Apostates, whose testimony w^as also 
confirmed by '• two young females who were examin- 
ed by torments and the rack," Now this panegyri- 
zed Trajan in his reply directs ; that every person 
wdio was accused and convicted of adhering to the 
faith of the Lord Jesus should suffer decapitation. 

In Asia one of the Governors exerted the utmost 
coercion. of persecuting rage. He so wearied them 
with unintermitted cruelties and oppressions, ma- 
ny thousands having been tortured to death ; that on 
one occasion, probably to plead for their sufferinc; 
brethren, the whole body of the church presented 
themselves before his tribunal ; he immediately or- 
dered a few of them to execution, and dismissing the 
rest said, " Miserable people, if you choose death 



iBi ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. LECTUEE IIJ. 

joii may find precipices and halters enough." It 
seems that the Savage was at last drenched witl^, 
christian blood. 

Three of the exalted worthies pf that age require 
distinct memorials. Some of the Jews accused Si-^ 
meon, 120 years of age, the son of that Cleopas with 
whom we have so often felt pur hearts burning withiii 
us when we have been walking with him and the 
mysterious stangei* to Emmaus ; during many days in 
succession he was most cruelly scourged, until at 
length fatigued with that tedious mode of extermina- 
ting vitality, they crucified him like his master. 

Phocas was commanded by Trajan in person, be- 
cause he would not sacrrfice to Neptune, to be im- 
mured in a burning lime kiln—and thence gtiil living, 
he was thrown into a boiling bath. Yet this is the 
far-famed, the exemplary and the merciful Trajan ; 
if this is Royal benevolence, what is vulgar cruelty ? 

As Trajan was travelling to the East, he rested at 
Antioch, where Ignatius had preached the Gpspel 
nearly forty years, with Apostolic power and success. 
Trajan summoned the veteran into the Imperial pre- 
sence ; and having required him to deny the Lord Je- 
sus, which was as peremptorily refused, he adjudg- 
ed him to be conducted to Rome, and there in thfe 
usual slaughter-house to be given to the Lions. Tra^ 
jan doubtless thought the nobler the victim, the deep- 
er the ignominy, and exulted in the philanthropic 
sport, which he had contrived for the debauched 
canaille of the Lnistress of the world. Chained day 
and night to ten soldiers, during a protracted jour- 
ney and voyage of more than 2000 miles, Ignatiug 
seemed to rise more dauntless and pure in propor- 
tion to his tedious and miserable captivity. He arriv- 
ed and w^as speedily devoured, 

It is high time to strip these Imperial Spoilers and 
Tyrants of their purple and their laurels, and to 
exhibit them, not in the garb of Infidel panegyric, but 
in the genuine manufacture of impartial Christianity ; 
and we may after this review of Trajan's persecatioR 



yj'ith wonder irK^uire, How could the church survive ? 
One reason only can be given, it was the rapture of 
prophecy — "- The Lord is Judge, the Lord is our 
Lawgiver, the Lord is our King ; he will save us." 

Adrian. Although this Emperor never issued -an} 
edicts of a persecuting nature, yet the non-repeal of 
those which Trajan had promulged, conduced to the 
same effects. By the law of Trajan, if a person could 
so conceal his attachment to the Gospel as to evade 
public accusation, he was safe ; and Adrian had 
given no impulse to the executioner's employ. It 
>vas at this period, that some of the scenes already 
briefly described occurred. The blood-thirsty pop- 
ulace, stimulated by the interested and revengeful 
priests, in the most tumultuous manner, demanded at 
the public games, the destruction of the Christians ; 
which was often granted, from the fears and disposi- 
tions of the Governors. We are informed, that up- 
wards of ten thousand disciples were butchered at 
one time in Rome, to appease the clamours of the 
infuriated populace. Around Mount Ararat, there 
was formerly celebrated an annual festival, to com- 
memorate the resting of Noah's ark upon the top of 
the mountain — it was accompanied with every spe- 
cies of the naost brutal riot and licentiousness ; on 
one of these occasions during the reign of Adrian, i% 
augment the universal festivity, they erected a large 
number of crosses ; and historians assure us, that 
after they had crowned the Christians with thorns, 
they crucified on that occasion nearly ten thousand 
of the followers of the Lamb ; and that they might 
witness their expiring agonies, they thrust into their 
sides sharp darts, after the similitude of their Re- 
deemer's death. 

These scenes continued to be exhibited during 
nearly seven years, when Adrian having perused the 
apologies of Quadratus and Aristides, and urged by 
the importunities of Gratianus, the pro-consul of Asia, 
not to sanction that most unreasonable injustice, the 
slaughter of Christians guiltless and without trial : 



62 ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. LECTURE III. 

fee directed at once, that no Christian should be mo- 
lested solely on account of his religious faith ; thus 
through the mercy of God, the Tyrant's arm was re- 
strained, and a respite of peace afforded to the ago- 
nized and agitated church. 

The next emperor, Marcus Pius, preserved the 
disciples in quietude ; he withered the arm of mur- 
derous rage by decreeing that if a christian were 
convicted of adhering obstinately to his profession, 
lie should be discharged, but his accuser should suf- 
fer the usual punishment awarded to calumniators. 
Thus by the rigid execution of his righteous edict, 
during the reign of Pius, the christians worshipped 
God in peace. 

The mercy of Heathens was too great a blessing 
for the possession of Christians ; — -hence, after the 
reign of Pius had closed, Aurelius xlntoninus obtained 
the throne ; a philosopher whose extraordinary wis- 
dom and virtue have been a standing topic of eulogy 
and eloquence during the last 1600 years, among the 
Pagan and Infidel Orators and Authors and Poets. 
But the most evident proofs which he ever gave of 
superior intellect or morality, are embodied in the 
fact, that during nineteen years he was an implacable 
persecutor of Christians ; and to them, Nero himself 
scarcely surpassed his injustice and barbarities. Nev- 
er was a cause more luminously and irrefragably de- 
fended than by Justin, Athenagoras and Tatian, and 
never was merciless cruelty more widely extended 
and more powerfully exerted than under the reign of 
this impurpled Despot in a philosophers cloak. 

The death of Polycarp, the disciple of John the 
Apostle, excited peculiar interest ; his terrestrial re- 
cord remains in the letter written by the church of 
Smyrna to their brethren of Pontus. From this 
epistle we ascertain the extremity of those tortures 
which the humanity and beneficence of this Antoninus 
commanded to be indicted upon those who would not 
bow down to his idol. The persons who witnessed 
the treatment of the martyrs were utterly astounded 



CENTURY II. -GS 

at the admirable but incredible patience which they 
displayed. They were scourged and whipped, until 
the internal veins and arteries and members appear- 
ed ; afterwards in this wretched condition they were 
obliged to walk and were rolled upon pointed shells, 
nails, thorns, and goads sharpened for the purpose ; 
and ingenuity itself having been exhausted in devis- 
ing torments, they were lastly transferred to the 
beasts of prey. We are assured, that at the sight of 
the peculiar and invincible constancy of two of the 
martyrs in the midst of unparalleled corporeal la- 
ceration, one of the rabble vociferated aloud, ^' Vere 
magnus Deus Christianorum." Verily, great is the 
God of Christians. He was immediately seized, and 
partook of their martyrdom, 

In one of these murderous assemblies, the whole 
multitude demanded Polycarp — Y/hen conducted be- 
fore the Proconsul, and commanded to offer sacrifice 
to the Emperor^s image, he peremptorily refused. 
As the guards were conducting him to the seat of 
judgment, a voice from Heaven, it v/as believed, was 
heard, amid the uproar and shouting of the rabble 
that Polycarp was apprehended ; the supernatural 
address said, " Be of good cheer, Polycarp, and play 
the man." The Proconsul menaced him with the 
wild beasts and with fire, for his refusal to sacrifice 
to Caesar's statue — " Eighty and six years," said the 
saint, " have I served my Master ; and how can I 
speak evil of him .'^" Immediately after he had 
avowed himself a Christian, the crowd of Jews and. 
Gentiles at Smyrna instantaneously and with most 
vehement rage and noise shouted, " This is the Fa- 
ther of the Christians and the destroyer of our Gods." 
A most noble God which man could destroy ! '^ Give 
him to the Lion" — but Polycarp had a short time be- 
fore seen a vision, from which he assured the church 
at Smyrna, that he should speedily be burnt : the 
Proconsul refused their desire that he should be de- 
voured by the Lion, but commanded him to be con- 
sumed alive by conflagration. When lie was tied ta 



64 i EGCLEftlAsAcAL HISTGRT, LECTURE Ilf. 



tlii stake, the fire having been kindled, the flame 
imibediately divided, and formed an arch above and 
ardund him, so that the fire coiild not molest his 
body ; a sword pierced his heart, and the quantity of 
blood which flowed extinguished the fire ; but at 
length his corpse was totally destroyed in the second 
burning. 

It would involve more particularity of detail than' 
is necessary, to recapitulate the boundless extent and 
ceaseless repetition of these horrors. Many of the 
most noble Christian dignitaries were transported 
into Heaven during the prevalence of the fiery storm. 
Justin, whose learning and eloquence, and arguments 
and facts had silenced Bacchanalian caiumny, and 
sheathed the sw^ord of Persecution under Marcus 
Pius, during the early part of the reign of his succes-' 
sor, w^as remunerated by the Prefect's outrageous de- 
nunciation, " let him be first scourged, and then be- 
headed" — six of his fellow Christians from the same 
dungeon accompanying him by similar decapitation 
to the joys of Paradise. 3. 

The world which we inhabit is a world of muta- 
tion ; before its destiny equally bows the Beggar'* 
staff and the Tyrant's sword ; at length Antoninus 
disappeared and bequeathed to Commodus his pow- 
er, but carried with him to Hades his barbarism. 

During the greater portion of the century whick 
remained, the empire was in peace respecting Chris- 
tianity, but the Lord removed the young and careles* 
Emperor ; and a stern adherent of Paganism suc- 
ceeded — whose nature was embodied in his name, 
Severus, and who after many years of quietude, re- 
sounded the horrific blast of war, and rekindled the' 
volcano for the Martyr's fiery destruction. 

From this narrative we deduce the depravity of hu- 
man nature. Solitary instances of guilt may be over- 
looked without an impeachment of a general system ; 
but it is impossible to develope uniform and gener- 
al evolutions of turpitude, of the most proportionate 

3. Appendix VI. 



e-ENTURY II. 65 

symmetrj and the most amplified extent, without re- 
ferring them to that very humiliating principle, the de- 
generacy of man, which Christianity reveals ; arid it 
cannot be disputed, tliat to this corruption alone, 
must be appropriated these monstrous excesses that 
defy not only all description, but also all credibility. 
?^o atrocities are too great for the agency of men, 
when they are r.ot restrained by the grace of God ; 
and this deductio!i forms the strongest cement which 
binds Christian laith around the cross of the glorious 
Friend of Sinners, unites penitence and prayer, and 
excites through evangelical hope, the utmost expec- 
tation of final peace and triumph in him " who died 
that we may live." 

How imperfect is the highest grade of terrestrial 
excellence ! Even dignified Christians, when not 
persecuted by relentless tyrants, debilitated tfieir 
own powerful associated energies, by frivolous dispu- 
tations and obstinately indexible anathemas ; while 
the history of the seven churches of Asia admonishes 
us, how sedulously w^e should endeavour to counter- 
act the destructive irruptions of heresy, and the se- 
ducing fascinations which ever urge us to a conform- 
ity with the world in its spirit, principles and conver- 
sation. 

Studiously emulate ^' the example of them who now 
through faith and patience inherit the promises !" 

" The good fight of faith'' is a contest unmitiga- 
ble in sharpness, and indefinite in extent. Here 
we behold arrayed against harmdess, patient, unre- 
sisting and generally illiterate sheep, all the learning^, 
malice and power of a malignant y> orld ; but these 
w^ere marshalled in vain. Their meekness could not 
be irritated or vanquished ; their patience it was im- 
possible to transform into anger ; their defenceless 
attitude could not be excited into rebellion or resist- 
tance ; and their heaven-born confidence could not 
be intimidated, though torture and death appalled— 
though Proconsuls and Governors condemned ; still 
they preserved all the illumination of faith and all 



66 ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. LECTURE lit, 

the fervour of devotion, in the midst of Imperial 
splendour and Amphitheatrical barbarity, with the 
ahxiost incessant and universal slaughter or confla- 
grations of the church. " Blessed are the dead vrho 
die in the Lord, they rest from their labours, and 
their works do follov/ them.'' ^' Here is the faith and 
patience of the saints" embodied in their triumph.— 
The Martyr dies, but the Christian survives ! Poly- 
carp, Ignatius and Justin vanish, yet the Church 
stands ! Trajan, Adrian and Antoninus governed, 
and are almost obliterated ! '• I saw the wicked 
buried, who had come and gone from the place of the 
holy, and they w ere forgotten in the city where they 
had so done." How imperishable the record ! how 
august the duplicate example ! This is the invulner- 
able argument for your confidence ! Here is the im- 
penetrable shield against external fury ! This grace 
is the infallible guide to his "presence, where there 
is fulness of joy, and to his right hand where there 
are pleasures for evermore." 



I^he iliirJ. Joarlli andjlfih Jlpocalijptic seals — the eininenl 
Christians — the interior stale— the Doctrines — the Gov- 
ernment — the Heresies — and the Persecutions of ^ the 
Churchy during the third Century. 



The visions of the Apostle depicted in the sixth 
chapter of the Revelation, from the fifth to the eighth 
verses, contain a prophetic delineation of the Roman 
empire during the third century ; and of its graphical 
correctness, all the surviving histories of that period 
furnish us most ample demonstration. The first of 
these seals has been applied to the reigns oi Severus 
and Alexander, in which era, the want of the neces- 
saries of life was generally, severely and almost con- 
stantly experienced. A penny was the common daily 
v/ages, and twenty of the measures here referred to 
were usually sold at that price ; bat in this scarcity, 
one only could be procured, and consequently a man's 
diurnal labour was not valued at more than bread 
for himself : — but oil and wine were exceedingly 
plentiful ; hence these privations attached principal- 
ly to the poor ; antl as almost all the Christians were 
from various causes enumerated among the lower or- 
ders, their sufferings, especially when increased by 
every species of oppression and persecution, must 
have been indescribably horrific. 

The fourth seal developes an accumulation of 
wretchedness ; the sword, famine, pestilence and fe- 
rocious beasts were all embodied and marshalled in 
the train of Death seated on a pale livid green horse, 
and the Grave his follower, to desolate and kill the 
fourth part of the earth. PA\ the historians of that 
most direful a2:e coincide in their details of the in- 



68 ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. LECTURE IV. 

dciiiiitelj diversified, boiindless and almost ariceasing 
calamities which the Roman empire realized during 
the last fifty years of the third ceritiiry. 

Maximin, the Emperor, was a monster of insatiate 
cruelty — ^the picture of his reign, and of some of his 
successors, is a commhioicd assemblage of war, mur- 
der, mutiny, invasions from abroad, internal rebel- 
lions, and civil disseotions. These contests and de- 
vastations were necessarily attended by hunger; and 
from the deficiency of food, one of the armies muti- 
nied and murdered the Emperor Probus ; while the 
same dearth extended through every part of the Ro- 
man territories. These evils were augmented by a 
pestilence which, from» its commencement in Ethiopia, 
ravaged every province during fifteen years. 

Two reigns are described as remarkable for noth- 
ing but this Viondrous visitor's deadly operations. 
The Scythians, in the defenceless condition of the 
state, captured and depopulated all the boundaries 
of the difFercDt regions — 5000 persoiis were diurnally 
victims of the distempers which walked in darkness, 
aud of the destruction which wasted at noon-day ; 
and as many portions of the empire were consequent- 
ly uncultivated, uninhabited, and not even travelled, 
the wild beasts multiplied prodigiously, and from 
hunger became inconceivably ferocious ; insomuch 
that large troops of lions and wolves entered the 
cities and towns, and a regular warfare for a long 
period was requisite, prior to that extinction of their 
numbers, when the inhabitants could remain in their 
districts vvithout alarm.. The vision v/as thus fully, 
though most mournfully verified ; not less than one 
fourth part of the immense population scattered from 
the Danube in Europe to the Atlas Mountains in Af- 
rica, and from the Atlantic Ocean to the Euphra- 
tes, died during the prevalence of this tremendous 
scourge. 

But where was the church of the living God, when 
these stones arose, and these tempests blew, and 
these floods came ? All assailed her with tornados 



CENTURY III. 69 

still more appalling, but the house fell not, for it waii 
jbuiided upon the Rock. 

A distinct view of her condition, character and 
trials, during this centurial revolution, will condense 
the history to that most stupendous alteration in her 
affairs which was conducted by the instrumentality 
of Constantine. 

In (he situation both of the Jews and of the Pagans, 
some circumstances existed which tended to uphold 
the afflicted disciples. Notwithstanding all the num- 
berless and indescribable horrors which continually 
and universally encircled the stedfast Christians, jet 
the Lord permitted several Emperors to reign in the 
progress of this period, who afforded to the Believ- 
ers a short space in which to reciover their strength 
when persecution had enfeebled them ; and as in the 
time of this respite no diligence was v^^anting, and 
every exertion was made to disseminate the light and 
the truth, it ensued, that the Kingdom of the Re- 
deemer was much enlarged, and the societies of 
Christians astonishingly n;ultiplied. Although the 
seed of Jacob still cherished their former obduracy 
and hatred against the followers of Messiah, jei their 
political influence aud power had become so small, 
and their state so degraded, that they were not 
equally capacitated to molest and harrass the church, 
as during the prior genei ations. 

The Pagan mythology was yet maintained by a 
number of writers, who employed every art of ridi- 
cule and the most atrocious calumnies against the 
Christian Oracles and system, to support the reign oi 
Idolatry. Lives of Heathen Philosophers were pub- 
lished, emblazoning them with the most splendid 
virtues, in contrast with the immaculate course of 
Immanuel ; but notwithstanding the unrelenting ma- 
lignity of the Priests, who, as often as practicable, 
stimulated the fury of the barbarous and ignorant 
multitudes, their cause manifestly declined. A nov- 
el attempt was made, to decorate the Atheistic ab- 
surdities of their vain speculations in the sacred garb 



70 ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. LECTURE iV. 

@f evangelical truth; and by this method, both to dete- 
riorate from the value of divine revelation, and also 
to perplex those, who convinced of the excellencj 
of the Gospel, might thus be embarrassed respecting 
a sincere submission to its swaj. In the course oi' 
these attempts, a renowned and most indisputable tes- 
timony to the veracity of the sacred volume was re- 
luctantly forced from its most virulent and shameless 
infidel assailant. Porphyry wrote a tedious and 
elaborate discussion, containins^ the most outrae-eous 
Msehoods concerning the followers of the Lamb ; 
notwithstanding, he perceived that the prophecies of 
the four grand kingdoms and the demolition of Jeru- 
salem, had been so evidently and completely fulfil^ 
led, that he could only escape from the difficulty, bj 
declaring that the book of Daniel was written long 
after the events which he had pretended to predict 
had transpired. But all these efforts w^ere in vain ; 
Philosophy and Heresy combined their energies to 
exterminate the holy records, without effect : for 
" the word of God increased, and the number of the 
disciples multiplied." 

/. The eminent Christians of the third Century. 
To preserve some memorial of the noble army of 
Confessors and Martyrs of the primitive ages is an 
incumbent duty upon later Christians. Some cf the 
worthies were really stars of the first magnitude. 
Irenoeus maintained the contest against the idolaters 
and heretics with equal zeal and success- — but he. 
was eventually doomed to follow his Master Poly carp 
to the alter of martyrdom ; for during the persecu- 
tion under Severus, he was murdered with almost 
every known 'Christian in Lyons. 

Tertullian, Pontasnus and Clemens, largely con- 
tributed to the defence and the instruction of the 
disciples, although their doctrines were mingled 
with some of the philosophical tenets then predomi- 
nant- But the highest in fame, and the most active 
in labour of all the authors, was Origen, who possess- 
ed a superior genius, most fervid piety, invincible 



CENTURY III. 71 

palieiice and zeal, and most extensive erudition ; 
which had ''he used under the influence of a just judg- 
ment, instead of indulging a boundless imagination, 
would have placed him superior to the utmost eulo- 
oy." Yet his pre-eminent talents, his virtues and his 
labours, must endear him to all Christians, as all his 
energies of soul and body were consecrated to the 
translation and dissemination of the Scriptures, and 
to the iiallowed service of the gracious Redeemer. 
During the persecution of Decius, he triumphantlj 
endured every species of torture which diabolical 
ingenuity could inflict ; for the malice of his tormen- 
tors determined them to agonize him to the last ex- 
tremity without extinguishing his mortal existence. 
In consequence of this most merciless resolution, he 
finally recovered, and departed from this vale of tears 
in a good old age ; his remains now awaiting the re- 
surrection of the Jiist. To these may be added Ju- 
lius, Dionysius, Methodius, Minucius and Arnobius, 
whose writings in defence of the Gospel were of the 
most important influence, and whose support of the 
truth almost completed the confutation of the Gentiles 
and their idolatry. 

But in some respects the most renowned, and as 
a Minister, the most laborious and the most success- 
ful in his vocation was Cyprian ; w^ho was a very ar- 
dent disciple of the Lord of life and glory, and with 
unintermitted activity devoted himself to the service 
of the church. The history of his life after he became 
Pastor of Carthage is a detail of duties and anxieties ; 
voluntary exile, seclusion and banishment all were 
his lot, that he might evade the storms of persecution 
that so grievously raged; but at length dnring the 
reign of Valerian, he was seized by the Proconsul, 
condemned to be beheaded ; and thus elevated to 
the possession of the " crown of glory that fadeth not 
away." 

//. The interior state of the Church. 

It appears probable that with very few exceptionpt, 
the power ©f working^ miracles had alm©st universally 



12 ECGLESIASTIGAL HISTORY. LECTURE iV. 

ceased. " The accounts which exist of the actions of 
Gregory, denominated the wonder-worker, not being 
attested by sufficient evidence render the narrative 
doubtful; but that he was made an instrument of 
great power in the conversion of souls, seems indubi- 
table." 

The manners and morals of the people in general 
had greatly degenerated from their purity and simi- 
litude to the standard of the Gospel. Philosophy 
had promulged the tenet, that in abstract meditation 
upon spiritual subjects, consisted the highest virtue; 
and Persecution, especially in Africa, impelled many 
of the Christians to migrate from the limits of the Ro- 
man power, where their lives and peace were never 
safe, and to fly into the inhospitable deserts in which 
perfectly concealed they might worship God unmo- 
lested. Thus commenced the monastic life ; and 
notwithstanding the sacrifices to which it conduced, 
the dangers which accompanied it, and its toial re- 
pugnance to the activity and the self-denying otBces 
of '-'- Pure and undefiled Religion;" if was so highly 
esteemed, that the thoughtless and ignorant consi- 
dered the seclusion of the Hermits, as embodying 
the very quintessence of the Gospel of Christ. 

The augmenting imperfections, vices and corrup- 
tions of the church were displayed in the controver- 
sies which were agitated, and in the defections that 
occurred during the time of the persecutions. All 
other evils were increased by the adoption of a new 
method to sanctify every abomination, or to oppose 
all that wasVenuinely good : this was the convention 
and establishment of Synods and Councils, which 
eventually ended in Popery, and through whose in- 
fluence that system has been so long maintained and 
perpetuated. 1. 

///. The Docirmes of tho Christian Church. 

During this century may be plainly discerned the 
tendency of the Church towards the grand apostacy 
and the reio:n of Antichrist, Both the frdth and the 

1. Appendix VIF. 



CENTURY III. 73 

practice of (he disciples were debased. The prin- 
ciples contained in the Apostles' creed, in the former 
a^es had constituted the chief if not the only subjects 
of general preaching and discussion. Of the altera- 
tion tlien introduced, one remarkable exemplifica- 
tion shall be given to illustrate the increasing degen- 
eracy. " The Lord and his Apostles had merely de- 
clared, that the souls of good men at death were 
received into heaven, and that those of the wicked 
were banished into hell ; and this doctrine convert- 
ed the Idolaters and sustained the martyred Disci- 
ples." But in this period, the ascent to heaven was 
confined to those who had died for the faith^ ard 
the rest were supposed to have removed to a spe- 
cies of Purgatory ; although that absurdity had not 
then obtained its height of predominance. Thus, 
from the ignorance of many of the Professors of 
the Truth, the incorporation of the systems of phi- 
losophy with that of religion, the mixture of Pagan 
superstitions with the simplicity of the Gospel, and 
the progressive succession of Heresy in multifa- 
rious forms, the temple of God was polluted with 
the vanities of men, and the lustre of Christianity on 
various occasions was partially obscured. The in- 
troduction also of the Monastic principles of self- 
iQortification, as constituting the most acceptable 
righteousness before God, copiously contributed 
to the establishment of moiiy additional rites and 
ceremonies, exorcisms, spells, the frequency of fast- 
ing, and an aversion from marriage. From all these 
causes, the creed, the devotions, the dignity of vast 
numbers who were called Christians, were much di- 
ininished from the standard of excellence w hich had 
formerly prevailed. 

IV. The government of the Church. 
The plain system of government which the Apos- 
tles had prescribed for the church, in this century 
lost nearly all its primitive features. By the delete- 
rious effects of the Councils, the determinations of 
i'^Borant and erring, mortals were transformed int® 



/4 ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. LECTURE IV. 

infallible dogmas, and the parity of station among 
the Preachers was lost iii distinctions between 
Presbyters, Bishops and Patriarchs, until at last the 
Pope embodied the whole mass of deformity. One 
of the most absurd and stupid of all the pretexts 
which ambition and cupidity devised for self-aggran- 
dizemeot, was deduced from the simulated analogy 
between the High Priest, the Priests and the Levites 
of the Mosaic economy, and the Bishop, Presbyters 
and Deacons of the Christian Church. Hence beo:an 
all the corruptions ot subsequent ages; and the sys- 
tem extended itself, until even all the necessary at- 
tendants of funerals were classed as Gospel minis- 
ters appointed by divine authority. The commence- 
ment of the Mass also is perceptible, in the additional 
ceremonies and the pompous rites which accompa- 
nied the administration of the Lord's Supper. Another 
circumstance added to this change — the meetings of 
the Christian assemblies which had formerly been 
held in a comparatively private manner, were now 
become more public in consequence of fixed and 
large houses ior the worship of God being appropri- 
ated for that sacred object ; but these seem to have 
existed only late in the century; for the first Christ- 
ian house of prayer is generally supposed to have 
heQw built at Rome, after the Decian or Valerian 
persecution. Still some vestiges oi original appoint- 
ments remained : the youth were instructed in the 
doctrines of Christianity , the choice of Pastors re- 
mained in the members of each distinct Society, and 
the power of the Bishops extended only to the regu- 
lation of the Churches in their own immediate vici- 
nity. 

Two disputes which agitated the Christians of this 
period will develope the increase of a monarchical 
power in the ecclesiastical government and a mu- 
tation of sentiment respecting one of the ordinances. 

The Bishop of Rome arrogated the jurisdiction to 
direct all things connected with the Church, for the 
submission of those, whom he declared to be his^ 



CENTURY III. /.J 

inferiors. This claim was most inveterate] j opposed 
hy Cyprian, who at the same time defended the dig- 
nity and authority of Bishops. -A dispute arose con- 
cerning the baptism of Heretics, and the Asiatic 
Christians determined that all Heretics should be 
re-baptized prior to their reception into the Church ; 
Stephen, Bishop of Rome, immediately promulged, 
that all who held this opinion should be excluded 
from communion with the Church of Rome. Against 
this anathema, Cyprian and the Africans forcibly re- 
plied, and denounced baptism by Heretics as void 
and invalid : nevertheless this vague dispute was 
only ended by the death of the Fioman, and the mar- 
tyrdom of Cyprian. 

A query was submitted to Cyprian, whether chil- 
dren ought to be baptized on the eighth day after 
their birth ? and a counci:! of sixty six preachers was 
assembled to decide the doubt. That the children of 
Believers should be baptized^ was admitted by all the contro- 
vertists^as a Christian ordinance and practice derived from 
the Apostles^ of ivhich no one pretended even to hesitate; but 
the question was finally dismissed respecting the pre- 
cise time of baptism, as involving points which no 
rules could peremptorily determine ; but they all de- 
cided that infants shoidd be baptized immediately. 
V. The Heresies, 
Three errors of a very offensive tendency were 
promulgated during this period, all producing the 
same effect, the progress of the grand Apostacy, acd 
the final exaltation of him, ^' who exalte th himself 
above all that is called Ood." 

The Manicheans derived their designation from 
Manes, a Persian Philosopher, who combined the 
tenets of the Gnostics respecting the Lord Jesus 
Christ, that he was only the form of a man, with 
the principle of purification by lire after death, and. 
the punishment of transmigration into the bodies of 
animals or the torments ofmalignant spirits. But as it 
was impossible to reconcile these monstrous absurdi- 
ties with the sacred Oracles ; he rejected all the Old 



76 ECCLESIASTICAL HLSTORY: LECTURE IJ. 

and the major part of the New Testament, and par- 
ticolarij denied the four Gospels and the Acts of the 
Apostles. A great variety of delusive opinions deri- 
ved from this general source Avas propagated by dif- 
ferent persons, among whom the Rierachites were 
the most disiingiiisbed ; for they meantained the 
abhorrent position, that all children ivho died in their in- 
fancy ivere exchided from the kingdom of heaven. These 
extravagancies have passed away ; and are so pre- 
posterous, that few men now have the hardihood to 
promulge them. 

. Two opinions prevailed under the general appel- 
lation of Sabellianism. Noetus and his disciples pro- 
fessed that God the Father, indivisible, w^as united to 
the man Christ, born and crucified with him ; hence 
they were described as persons who declared, that 
the Divine Creator of the Universe alone expiated 
hj death, the sins of the world. But Sabellius and 
bis adherents averred, that a certain energy only 
from the Supreme, or a portion of the Divine nature 
was united to the man Jesus, and that the Holy Ghost 
was also only an emanation from the Everlasting Fa- 
ther. These Sectaries wei'e called Patri-Passians i 
they who believed that God the Father died. Va- 
rious modifications of these general propositions were 
sustained; but all of them denied either the humanity 
or the divinity of the Lord Je'sus Christ. Paul, the 
leader of one sect, affirmed that the Son and Holy 
Ghost exist in God, as reason and activity abide in 
man ; and that Christ was born a mere nian, but that 
the wisdom of the Father descending upon him, he 
¥/roiight miracles, and therefore was justly called 
God. The Heresies of modern ages therefore are 
1600 years old, and only a little modified to conceal 
their deformity. 

From the history of the Church, as well as from 
the Gospels, we deduce, that the Lord Jesus was al- 
ways honoured as possessed of divine perfections, 
combined with human characteristics, Immanuel, 
God with us ; and thJs was the unvarying belief of 



CENTURY IIL 



77 



all the Christian disciples during the first three ccn- 
tiiries ; to verify which fact^ it is indubitable, that 
those who denied this fundamental doctrine were 
not admitted to the communion of saints. 

The pestilential influence of these unholy princi- 
ples was increa'^ed by a bitter and wide spread con- 
troversy, which arose respecting the restoration of 
tliose into the church, who, during the persecution 
under Decius, from fear of death had denied the Lord 
that bought them. In this most direful period, many 
of the Christians abjured their profession; after the 
storm, by the relentless Tyrant's death, had ceased, 
the backsliding but penitent sheep prayed again to 
be received into the fold of the Redeemer. Novatian 
most furiously opposed their re-admission ; and al- 
though he coincided in every other point with all the 
churches, yet the controversy raged so warmly, and 
so extensively, that he at last, with many others, se- 
ceded from the fellowship of those who united with 
the lapsed, and formed distinct Societies. This pro- 
duced a lamentable division, until the tenth perse- 
cution melted all the disciples into one mass, and had 
not the Lord interposed, would have consumed them 
all in the same general tremendous conflagration. 

At this period the fifth seal, as recorded in the sixth 
chapter of the Revelation, from the ninth to the elev- 
entli verses, having been opened, unfolds its woful 
mystic scenery ; and introduces the prominent char- 
acteristics of those heart-rending sufferings which 
the peaceful flock of the Lamb of God were doomed 
to endure. 

VI. The Persecutions. 

Those of the prior era have already been review-- 
ed ; but incredible as the fact may appear, all the 
ingenuity in devising torment, and all the malignity 
in inflicting pain which hitherto had been exhibited, 
were merely the sport of children, contrasted Mitli 
the inconceivable miseries with which the Lord per- 
mitted his saints to be afflicted, until the contest be- 
tween the glorious Son of God and the powers of 



78 ' ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. LECTURE IV* 

darkness closed in the utter extinction of the Bac- 
chanalian Mythology. 

The partial calm which had subsisted during the 
early part of the reign of Severus, who filled the 
imperial throne at the commencement of this century, 
ijoon disappeared ; for he promulgated a decree, that 
no person should exchange the religion of his Ances- 
. tors for that of Christianity. This iniquitous requi- 
sition furnished an excuse for plundering the Chris- 
tians of their property, and for murdering them as 
having departed from Paganism. From the annals 
of this tempest, the following brief narrative is se- 
lected, as a specimen of the desolation which ravaged 
particularly in Asia and Africa. 

Perpetua, a young married woman of high rank, 
with two men of superior order, and a male and fe- 
male slave, the latter named Felicitas, were seized ; 
and all in treaty and remonstrance, and multiform 
hardships in prison, with every menace at the bar of 
judgment, having in vain been employed to induce 
them to recant ; Hilarian, the Judge, commanded that 
they should be cast to the wild beasts at the next 
public shews. During their confinement, the Jailor 
was converted to the faith, and on the day prior to 
the public exhibition, vast crowds, not only of the 
Christians from love, but of the Pagans from curiosi- 
ty, visited them. To the latter, Satur, one of the 
men, when they were closely inspected by the Idola- 
ters, loudly and with great animation appealed, '-^Ob- 
serve luell our faces ^ that you may knoio them at the day of 
Judgment!'^ One of the men expired in his dungeon 
in peace. The other four were conducted into the 
sanguinary Despot's presence ; " Thou judgest us^^^ 
said the Martyrs, " God shall judge thee.''^ They were 
immediately scourged in the most barbarous manner; 
and having with great christian magnanimity, expe- 
rienced very shameless abuse and every indecent de- 
gradation from the ruffian multitude, and torturing 
lacerations from the hungry brutes, they fell asleep 
in Jesus. 



CENTURY HI. 



79 



Tyrants, however, with all their power, mast die ; 
and the Lord having permitted thisSevenis to devour 
the church during nearlj ten years, summoned him 
to t^;iat dread tribunal, where even Imperial earthly 
edicts arc scrutinized and remunerated in the utmost 
exactitude of personal retribution. 

From this period during thirty eight years, the 
church enjoyed comparative peace, v/ith the excep- 
tion of the short and turbulent reign of Maximin. He 
vented his rage against Christianity, by an edict in 
which he commanded, that all the Pastors of the 
church should instantaneously and in the most bar- 
barous manner be murdered ; thinking, without doubt, 
that by the destruction of the Teachers, the Congre- 
gations must follow. The doleful effects of his cruel 
mandates were realized by Christians of every rank 
and description. He reigned three years only, and 
consequently lived not to complete his design ; for 
his blood-thirsty temper, with equal gratulation and 
delight, would have exterminated the human race, as 
the noblest portion of his subjects. 

The declaration of the Redeemer, " in the world 
ye shall have tribulation," and the doctrine of Paul, 
'* the godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution," 
were still to be v(?!-ified. About the middle of this 
century, Decius, having murdered Philip the Empe- 
ror, who, if not himself a Christian, was a most ardent 
Friend to the Disciples, was permitted by God to 
kindle a new lire. Some idea may be formed of this 
extremely horrific desolation, when it is remem- 
bered, that the provincial governors and praetors 
throughout the empire, were peremptorily directed 
under the penalty of immediate death, to exterminate 
the whole body of Christians without delay, and 
without exception, either of rank, station, sex or age ; 
or to coerce them by every possible species of tor- 
ture, to join in the idolatrous orgies, and publickly 
avov/ themselves to be Pagans. The peculiar refine-, 
ment and barbarity of the torments thus universa,lly 
propelled into operation, were inexpressibly more 



80 ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORy. LECTURE tT. 

dreadful and appalling than sudden marUrdorn ; 
hence vast numbers, terrified at the slow-paced hor- 
rors which were prepared for them, abjured their 
divine Master^s cause and profession, while innume- 
rable multitudes, throughout all the provinces of the 
empire were transferred by the chariot of fire, to an 
immortal crow n of glory. The brutal indignities es- 
pecially to which the Christian virgins were forced to 
submit, left them no alternative, but to deny their 
Lord with every species of blasphemous lascivious- 
ness, or to forget themselves, as one of them trium- 
phantly uttered when the infernally infuriated Barba- 
rians were most vilely abusing her mortal frame— 
*• You may put my body to shame'"'' said the saint, ''■ but 
you cannot defile my soul^ Yet these are the most no- 
ble Greeks and Romans, who are ever propounded as 
the august exemplars of wisdom and virtue to our 
youth, and who, they are instructed to believe, em= 
bodied all that is dignifying in, human nature. In 
short, had not the Lord, after the persecution had 
ravaged during two years, sent the invincible mes- 
senger Death, to remove the author of this pestilence, 
the public profession, if not the private knowledge 
of Christianity, according to all human calculation, 
must have been extinguished. At this period, began 
the devastations of that alarming plague, which dis- 
seminated agony and dissolution, in every district 
w here it was permitted to enter. 

Very speedily after the succession of Gallus to the 
throne, the sterm, which on account of the death 
of Decius, had in some measure ceased, was re-an- 
imated with equal fury. But the Lord who by the 
former whirlwind had purified the Church, did not 
design that its enemies should triumph in her total 
destruction. An interval of peace succeeded until 
the year 257, when Valerian, having changed his 
kindness towards the Christians, first prohibited the 
assemblies of the disciples for public worship ; all 
the Preachers of the church were next doomed to 
exile ; and during the following year, every Christian 



CENTURl' lit. 81 

Was coiwmanded to worship the idols upon pain of 
instant death. Among the noble army of Martjrs 
who were removed to cry under the altar, were Cy- 
])rian, Sixtus and Laurentius ; the latter of whom i& 
renowned for having been broiled on a grid-iron. \V hen 
he had continued a considerable time lying on one 
^^ide over a slow fire, the patient saint addressed the 
Prefect who w^as present, '-''letrn.e be turned., I am broil" 
cd enough on one dde^'' When they had turned him, 
he added, •' // is enough^ ?ioiv ye may eatP'^ Then pray- 
ing for his enemies, he departed to Paradise. 

From the records of this persecution, it appears, 
that the murderers learnt by experience and practice, 
new modes of torture, and toore exquisite methods of 
prolonging life in every species of possible excrucia- 
tion ; so that it is not surprising, that those only whose 
faith was of the most ardent and seraphic nature, 
could triumphantly conquer the extremity ^of anguish 
which in every place and condition, and at all times 
encircled them. 

This Emperor Valerian however, affords a remark- 
able evidence of the equality of Providential distri- 
butions. In a war with Persia, he was taken prison- 
er by Sapor, the Persian King, who would not release 
him ; but constantly used his neck for a stirrup when 
he mounted his horse, and finally flayed and salted 
him. Whether his immediate successors were im- 
pressed by this example is uncertain, but the fury of 
persecution ceased, and during the succeeding fifteen 
years, the condition of the disciples, if not altogether 
peaceful, %vas throuoll faith and hope tolerable. 

The calm, however, was disturbed by Aurelian, 
the Emperor, in 275, who, like Haman the Agagite, 
had resoh/ed by one overwhelming stroke to demol- 
ish the Church :— a fellow-murderer effectually as- 
^sailed him, and he was transferred from the imperi- 
1 palace of P;,ome, to the house appointed for all 
^ving, prior to the actual execution of his own ungod- 
ly raandeies. 

Here the ])ersecutions of the third century close; 

L 



82 ECCLEbiASTiCAL HiSTOftr. LECTURE IV„ 

but to complete the subject; it is proper to remark, 
that the vision of John abeady iritrodaced, witlioni 
doubt relates to the last combustion, emphaiicaiiv 
denominated " the era of Martyrs.'^ 

From this vision miy be deduced a very impor- 
tant doctrine. The departed Martyrs are represen- 
ted prostrate imder theilitar; as sacrifices slain to 
the Lord, crying aloud, that Jehovah w-ould avenge 
their cause. They are dressed in white robes to 
shew their justification before God; but they are ex- 
horted to rest for a season, until the number of Mar- 
tyrs sh?dl have been completed, when they sheJl re- 
ceive their plenary reward. This depicts the souls-; 
of the disembodied saints in an ever secure region, 
possessed of conscious energy, in devotion and en- 
joyment. The Historians of that period, who sur- 
vived the persecution of Dioclesian, all affirm, that 
the final fiery storm was of looger continuance, wider 
extension, more atrocious barbarity, and as having 
effused more christian blood than all the former per- 
secutions combined. It began in 303.-— An order 
w^as issued by the Emperor, to demolish all houses 
dedicated to the worship of Jesus, to consume all 
Christian books and writings in the liames, to debar 
the followers of the Lamb from every civil- right 
and privilege, and to impede them from any office 
of trust, honour or emolument. A second edict 
soon followed, by which all the Ministers and Dea- 
cons were sentenced to be instantaneously cast into 
prison, A third decree was speedily promulged, 
thjt every torment which could possibly be devised, 
sliould be adopted, t > iinpel the Preachers to desert 
the cross, and unite in the blasphemies of Imperial 
idolatry. 

An immense number of persons was sacrificed- 
through this stratagem. Decency precludes the re- 
cital of their tortures, vast multitudes of them died 
in their sufferings, and those whom they could not 
Mius destroy, were sent to the mines, there to drag; 
r)43t the remains of a wretched life, in vassalage, la* 



CENTURY III. S3 

boiir^ and angiiish. After a short interval, the fourth 
law was enacted, and by it all Christians, without 
resfard to as:e, rank, sex or condition, were doomed 
to suffer ev ery kind of shame and misery indicted 
upon their bodies ; and if they v/ouhl not finally apos- 
tatize, then the Magistrates were enjoined to sen- 
tence them to death. Orosius assures us, that dur- 
ing ten years, tlie Roman empire exhibited nothing 
but one universal scene of devastation, slaughter and 
human victims in perennial conflagration. The fives 
of the Houses of Prayer, the proscription of the in- 
nocent sheep, the destruction and coiifiscation of the 
property of the Christians, and the ceaseless butch- 
ering of the Believers, altogether depopulated the 
people of God, stained every district of the whole 
empire with the Blood of the church, and the public 
strength ami numbers and wealth, by these terrific 
means were more completely exhausted than had 
ever been effected by the most extensive, lasting 
and desolating wars. So completely at last had the 
persecutors triumphed, that pillars were erected, de- 
claring that the superstitions of Christianity were to- 
tally abolished, and the worship of the Gods entirely 
and eternally restored. But the judgment of God 
awaited Galerius, the grand instrument of these in- 
fernal outrages; the latter part of his life was tortur- 
ed Avith a disorder of the body, which literally in 
the utmost agony and' amid complicated horrors ioeffli- 
blc, gradually corrupted him, until his corporeal frame 
in rotteness was finally separated from his soul; bat 
not until by an Imperial edict, he had ordered the 
persecution to cease. Freedom and repof?e were 
thus restored to the remnant of the scattered and 
concealed followers of the Lamb. Here we must 
pause for the opening of the sixOi seal ; v/hich crum- 
bled idolatry into atoms, and exhibited the cross of 
Christ triumphant over all his enemies. 

The subjects which have now passed in review 
instruct us — How vain are all the efforts ofunr'^odlj 
men to extirpate the Gospel of Christ, and the church 
®f God I 



84 ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. LECTURE IT. 

Here learning most extensive, tortures unceasing, 
allurements most seductive, power uncontrolled, and 
general malignity unrestrained, congregate their en- 
ergies in vain against the defenceless and unoppos- 
ing Sons of Peace. Though like Shadrach, Meshach 
and Abednego, they were cast into a boundless 
^' burning iiery furnace," the Son of God preserved 
them victorious amid the flames ; and though like 
Daniel they were immured in the den of Lions," 
through the presence and almighty power of their 
Saviour, they " were more than comquerors through 
him who hath loved us :" and our ensuing exhilarat- 
ing employ is to review the annals, and to listen ta 
the enraptured shouts of their triumph. 



lie Apocalyptic sixth seal— the triumph of Christianity — 
the doctrine — the government — the Ministers — the cere- 
monies-'and tlie heresies of the Church during the fourth 
Century. 



The scenes exhibited in the prophetic dehneation, 
from the twelfth verse of the sixth chapter of the A- 
pocalypse to the end of the seventh chapter, consti- 
tute one of the most remarkable revolutions recorded 
in the annals of empires. We have already sympa- 
thized with the suffering Martyrs; we have retraced 
the ceaseless malignity, and the combined energies 
of the Roman potentates, always excited to extermi- 
nate the name and the disciples of Jesus of Nazareth 
during nearly 300 years; and we have heard the 
Bachanals shout that Christianity was extirpated, and 
Idolatry for ever established. But the star, however 
beclouded and feeble its glimmerings, w as still visi- 
ble above the horrizon in the West ; and it is a won- 
derful coincidence of facts, that from England should 
have arisen the destroyer of Pagan abominations, and 
the most powerful enemy to Antichristian supersti- 
tions. 

It w^ould be a departure from our professed object 
to introduce the history of the demolition which the 
Heathen authorities realized at this period ; but it 
is necessary to record, that through the instrumen- 
tality of Constantine, the whole imperial system of 
Rome was utterly subverted. The sixth seal has oft- 
en been applied to the opening of that w^onderous 
day of eternity which shall never know an evening — 
but it was no doubt intended primarily to predict 
that astonishing succession of events and victories, by 
w^hich all the Imperial persecutors who had partici- 



S6 ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. LECTURE T, 

pated in the horrors of the era of Martyrs, were in 
succession, and finally subjugated ; and by which a 
professed Christian became sole and undisputed 
Master of the Roman territories. Without attempt- 
ing to investigate the controversies connected with 
this subject, it v/ill suffice briefly to narrate the facts. 

Constantius had uniformly displayed affection for 
the Christians, so that in his portion of the Empire, 
the rage of persecution was little known. Constan- 
tine his son, denominated the Great, having imbibed 
his father's predilictions, became the object of aver* 
sion to all the other Princes. Providentially preserv- 
ed from murder, he escaped from Gaierius, the 
chief Persecutor who had designed his death, to his 
father's dominions ; and speedily after he was chosen 
and proclaimed Emperor. A combination was im« 
mediately formed, to divest him of his authority and 
life. Convinced that a contest of indefinite magni- 
tude and duration was unavoidable ; and that the 
conflict involved not only his family interests, the 
enjoyment of his friends, but also the prosperity of 
the empire, and the apparent existence of that reli- 
on, the disciples of which were his only confidential 
and faithful adherents— on his march from Gaul to 
Italy, if Eusebius has correctly informed us, his mind 
was most grievously agitated with a view of the dan- 
gers, importance and results of that measure, which 
had compelled him to resort to arms in defence of 
his ov/n dominions and people, by whom he was es- 
teemed to the highest degree of devoted enthusiasm. 

Of the affection which the Britons, Gauls and Span- 
iards bore to Constantius and his descendants, the 
following fact affords a beautiful illustration. All the 
exterior pomp and magnificence of Eastern royalty, 
were totally excluded from this Prince's humble 
mansion ; hence on some occasion when Diocletian's 
ambassadors visited him, they were astonished that 
no goblets of gold and services of silver v/ere found 
on his table. Diocletian reproved him very sharply, 
for not taxing the people more, for his own splendour. 



CJ&KTURY IV. 



er 



cind for the imperial revenue. Constaiilius assured 
him, that although vast masses of the precious me- 
tals wore not locked up in his palaces, jet that upon 
any emergency he could display more wealth than 
:^]1 the other Emperors combined. Diocletian ap- 
])oinied persons to go to Const antine's residence, at 
that time in France, and examine into the truth of 
his declaration. In the intermediate time, the belov- 
ed Emperor had sent to all the influential persons of 
every rank, a general notice, that the public safety 
and necessities required them to deposit at his com- 
mand and service, whatever of the precious m.etals 
they could spare for the present exigency. On the 
day of exhibition, the Envoys expressed their utm_ost 
astonishment at the immense quantities of gold and 
silver, ^bullion, coin and plate which had been sent 
to him; and the view of this plate probably hindered 
'ie other persecutors from attacking him in his owh 
' -rritories. Immediately after this scrutiny, every 
man's deposit was faithfully restored to him.; Con- 
stantius preferring the security of their affections, to 
any other treasury. 

On riiiother occasion Constantius was directed 
hy all the other Emperors, during the fury of the 
persecution, to banish from his service every Chris- 
tian, lie transform.ed the order into a contrivance 
to ascertain his real friends ; having published the 
decree, that every person must become an Idolater 
or be dismissed from his otiice, he was rejoiced to 
discover that all his most attached, most useful, most^ 
faithiul, and most respected friends and Officers, 
deliberately chose disgrace, poverty and death, rath- 
er than a violation of their consciences, and a sacri- 
iice of the fear of Gods. The Apostates were imme- 
diately discarded, and to the inflexible Christians 
was committed the superintendance of all the affairs^- 
of Ids dominions. 

That parties thus mutually and reciprocally united 
in interest, in principle and in heart, should be deep- 
ly impressed with so unequal a contest: Constantine 



ii EeeLESlASTlCAL iilST©RY. LECTLRE \ - 

and his minor forces contC}"!l[ding against the arrayed 
strength of three fourths of the Empire, supported bj 
all the dignity of majesty, the confidence of victo- 
rious military genius, and the malignant opposition 
of Bachanalian idolatry, is not surprising ; and that 
their chieftain should be intensely agonized, is natu- 
ral and just. In this distressing perplexity, when 
approaching Italy, where the actual warfare was ex- 
pected to commence ; at noon, or as some authors 
say at sunset, appeared in the heavens, the figure 
of a cross, such as that on which Jesus of Nazareth 
was crucified, splendid and luminous as the sun— 
and over it in plain letters in the Latin language, 
the words, '' By this, thou shalt overcome." While 
he was overwhelmed with anxiety to ascertain the 
object of this astonishing celestial appearance, in a 
dream the same night, he saw the Lord of Life and 
glory, who commanded him to erase from the stand- 
ards of his army, the usual idolatrous ensign, and to 
inscribe the figure of the cross which he had seen ; 
assuring him, that if he sought the Lord in prayer, 
and trusted in him, he should prosper in all his en- 
terprises, and confound all his enemies. The figures 
of Idolatry were at once removed, the cross was in- 
serted, and Constantine in the progress of a few years 
oompleteiy fulfilled all that the sixth seal developed; 
for " the kings of the earth, the great men and the 
mighty men, hid themselves in the dens and in the 
rocks of the mountains;" and thanks be to God, there 
they remain yet entom.bed ! ! Several years were 
occupied in the consummation of his designs ; but in 
the year 324 all opposition having been extermina- 
ted, Constantine issued those edicts hy which Idolatry 
was trampled under foot, and Christianity proclaimed 
the religion of the empire. 

The seventh chapter of the Revelations has been 
applied by all Scripture expositors, to the period 
immediately subsequent to the elevation of Constan- 
tine to the undirided government of the Roman em- 
pire ; and although the C^mmentaters are partially 



CENTURY IV 



89 



Jivided in opinion respecting the interval betwixt the 
restraint upon the winds, and the close of the h.ii: 
hour's silence in heaven ; every thing to be ascertaiii- 
ed iVom the ancient records assures us, that it v, ai=^ 
not until after the death of Theodosius the great, ii; 
tlie year I^O.), that those tremendous desolations com- 
menced, which ended in the division of Europe iiit'^ 
tlie ten horns of the Beast depicted in the Apocaly ps . 
Our present review will consequently include th . 
history of these seventy years ; and will prove th- 
no history could have been more figuratively acc\.- 
rate, tliati the mysteries which the Prince of Ihf' 
Kings of the Earth, unfolded to the Apostle Johv, 
when in Patmos, he" was in the spirit on the Lorcr. 
day." 

Before we enter upon the review of the interi • 
state ol the Church, it may be remarked, that t- 
events of an unfavourable nature to the truth occurrv 
The accession of Julian to the throne-, who having ap^ 
tatized from the Christian faith, became a most arl : 
malignant, deceitful, and bitter adversary to ll. 
Christians; and had determined, that if he returnc 
successful from his war Avith Persia, to extirpate tl 
terrestial kingdom of Jesus. His reign was not ^ 
two years continuance; but during that period \i. 
resolved to try the validity of our Lord's pre 
dictions upon one of the most essential topics of o::; 
historical faith. The Amen, the faithful and trn. 
Witness had declared, that the temple of Jerus-rl- 
should be utterly demolished, and that troddeii dovs 
of the Gentiles, it should remain in desolation ar^ ; 
ruins, until 'Hhe times of the Gentiles shall be fuli" 
led.'' Julian felt the energy of this monumental ^v 
bie argument in favour of Christianity; and \y\mr '. 
to evince that it included no veracity, by acombii; . 
tion of the whole Roman power. Edicts were pi^ 
mulged to rebuild the temple of Solomon in iis pr" 
tine magnificence; and the Jews were cominand: ' 
there to re-assemble and restore their Mosaic nv^ .. 
in all its pomp and ceremonies. In addiiipn to U- 

M 



9^ ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. LKoiURE V, 

mjriads of Jews who hastened in their infatuation, 
to comply with an Idolatrous Magician's impious 
and impotent attempt to disprove the verity of God'g 
declarations ; a large military force was also appoint- 
ed to superintend and aid the completion of the re- 
bellious design. But every effort w^as in vain ; as 
soon as the v/orkmen began to remove the stones 
and earth, which in scattered masses had escaped 
the final conflagration under Titus, tremendous 
balls of fire, most appalling and hideous noises, con- 
tinual concussions of the earth, not only filled the 
idolaters and Jews with the utmost terror and dismay, 
but at last rendered Mount Moriah abiiiolutely inac- 
cessible ; so that all the menaces and promised emo- 
luments which Julian addressed to them, were equal- 
ly in vain. Fourteen hundred and sixty years have 
since elapsed, verifying to the highest degree of hu- 
man credibility and confidence, the certainty of 
Christ's memento, - " Heaven and Earth shall pass 
away, but my words shall not pass away." 

The death of the Apostate was similar to his life : 
mortally wounded by a lance, he filled his hand 
with blood, and hurled it towards heaven, exclaiming, 
" O Galilean, thou hast conquered." — Thus ending a 
life of infernal servitude, by the DeviFs own faith 
and acknowledgement, " Thou art the Son of God."^ 

In Persia, during part of this century, under Sapon 
then King ; a long and inos-t desolating persecution ravag- 
ed the disciples^ who lived within the sway of that idol- 
atrous Tyrant. So general, so grievous, so complete 
v/as the extermination of the church, that from the 
fourth century to the present period, the profession 
of Christianity and the name itself have become so 
obscured, as with few exceptions scarcely to exhibit 
a solitary testimonial, that innumerable multitudeg 
there warbled redemption's triumphs, and in those 
regions vastly increased the noble army of Martyrs. 

Respecting the general enjoyments of that age 
which immediately succeeded the victories of Con- 
stantine ; that the prophecy was fulfilled is evident. 



CENTURY IV. ^1 

jiul only from the testimony of the Historians who 
then flourished but also from medals still existhig, on 
which are inscribed Beata Tranquillitas ; Blessed 
TrcmquilUty ; and as if the Authors had imbibed tiie 
spirit of the Apostle who foresaw their peace; they 
triumphantly depict their gladness in almost the very 
terms of inspiration. Lactantius thus writes, "tran- 
quillity being restored throughout the world, the 
church lately ruined is resuscitated. After the vio- 
lent agitations of so great a tempest, the calm aii* and 
the desired light are resplendent. God has relieved 
the afflicted, and wiped aAvay the tears of the sor- 
rowful." 

Thus Immanuel restrained the v/inds of war and 
persecution: nothing was permitted from without 
essentially to injure the kingdom of Christ in the Ro- 
man empire. Vast numbers qf the Jev. s v. ere added 
to the church, and a great multitude which no man 
could number, the servants of God, sealed in their 
foreheads, that is baptized and admitted into the chris- 
tian covenant, all united in that wonderful chorus, 
*' Salvation to our God who sitteth upon the throne, 
anil unto the Lamb, Amen." They were arrayed in 
white robes to denote their justification and sanctifi- 
cation through the death and merits of Christ; they 
carried palms in their hands to express their victory 
over all their tribulations, and their persecuting en- 
emies ; and they enjoy the comforts of a land, where 
famine shall not molest, thirst shall not afflict, and 
fires shall no more consume. For the Lamb their 
gracious Brother, Redeemer, Guide, and Friend, 
nourishes them, supplies them from tl'^e stream which 
makes glad the city of our God : and banishes weep- 
ing and lamentation from every heart, and " wipes 
away all tears from their eyes." This was realized in 
many points of view, and while it demands our most 
fervid gratitude for the past, it sanctions hope for the 
future; when during the Millenium this splendid 
vision shall ])e the picture of our o;lobe, and authori- 
;^es miK^h more estatic anticipations of its final and 



-^2 ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. LECTURE V. 

nnallojed consummation in the regions of bliss eter- 
nal. 

But splendid as is the vision, and delightful as is 

the prospect; we must enter upon the threshold of 
the church which then existed, and inspect its va- 
rious characteristics. 

/. The Doctrine. 
The xmve sentiments of the Gospel were the o-en- 
eral faith of the Cln*lstians of the fourth century : 
and here it may not be improper to record a summary 
of their fundamental creed. But it should be re- 
marked, that while we ado])t the evangelical princi- 
ple, to '^ call no man Master, upon ear ilk" we may 
reasonably suppose, that tlie Christians who h^ad suf- 
fered in the ^qvj ordeal of that most abhorrent per- 
secution which has already been described, could 
not materially have departed from the doctrines of 
their Ancestors, Of this truth, one modern example 
affords ample evidence ; the present Independents 
in England, scarcely differ in any perceptible point, 
certainly in no essential feature, from their Forefa- 
thers 250 years ago; but this is a lapse of time nearly 
double that which passed from the death of Polycarp, 
the disciple of John the Beloved, to the mutilation of 
Hosius, the cliairman of the council of Nice. What 
then was their orthodoxy } They held as truths 
undeniable — that man was a corrupt, helpless, and 
hopeless sinner— that Jesus of Nazareth, Immanuel, 
God with us, had left the throne of glory, and having 
become incarnate, had died to atone for our sins ; by 
his resurrectio?) had veriiied the Gospel which his 
Apostles preached and planted ; and by his ascen- 
ssoa had resumed his station. Mediator, Prophet., 
Priest and King, that all vv^ho believe in him should 
be saved from the curse of God's law— and that 
through him, that effulgence of spiritual light was 
diffused, by which men. saw their misery ; and that 
\\v?) Holy Spirit by his divine inikiences, transformed 
men from the bondage of Satan, into the freedom of 
the qhildren of God. To these truths were added,:' 



tho ]')ei"Sonai experience that every good thought, 
v.ord, feeling and action were the result of God-like 
interposition ; and that faith, hope, love and good 
works flowed from promised assistance ; in short, 
ihat the redemption of man from his first serious im- 
pression to its consummation in glory, through all 
the stages of illumination, guidance, protection and 
(lehvcrance was only to be ascribed to the praise of 
liim who on the cross of Calvary, proclaimed in nev- 
er-dying energy, " It is finished." 

This is your faith — in it may you live, in holiness 
and peace; in it may you triumphantly die, and for- 
ever exult in the beatific vision of God and the 
Lamb ! 

But it is lamentable to be obliged to add, that the 
purity of truth was beclouded with an almost endless 
train of absurd superstitions ; many of which w ere 
indubitably added from a desire to conciliate the 
Pagans. Here, it may be necessary to mention only 
one : among the Idolaters it had been an universal 
practice, to form grand public processions and pray- 
ers, to appease the WTath of their ideal Gods ; these 
were now partially adopted in a ritual of great pomp, 
and were moat magnificently celebrated among the 
Professors of Christianity ; and in conjunction with 
this contradiction to common sense, as the Heathens 
had attributed to their temples and purificahoos, and 
to the statues of their Gods, certain propitious effects, 
thus to Christian houses of prayer, to water conse- 
crated in a certain form, and to images of holy men, 
was referred the efficacy of that grace w hich the Ho- 
ly Ghost can alone impart. 

This was the introduction of that system of Purga- 
tory w^hich in subsequent ages was ih'fetituted ; and 
the addition of solemn rites attached to particular 
days, which however highly deserving of remem- 
brance, ought to be commemorated without supersti- 
tion, increased the tendency to a departure from the 
faith of the Saints. Hence arose the exhibition of 
those insincere practices, which subsequently intro- 



§i ECeLESIASTPr^AL HI*1*8>RY. LECTURE V. 

duced the whole Papal fabric, and their only source 
of defence against the attacks of the Reformers, 
This facilitated the progress of the monkish system, 
and forced celibacy ; and sanctioned the establish- 
ment of two iijaxims which subsequently unfolded ail 
their iniquity. Towards the latter part of the fourth 
century, the Christian church was defiled with the 
general belief, adoption and practice of these most 
-abhorrent positions, " That falsehood was virtue, 
when by it the interests of the church could be pro- 
moted ; and that errors in faith should be punished 
with torture and death." 

In connection with the doctrines of the church, 
may be properly enumerated their controversies. It 
must be admitted that the external peace of the 
church was probably one source of the arrogance, 
negligence, and disputations oi the Prelates ; many 
also were introduced into the external fold from mo- 
tives of gain, or fear of punishment, and not from coh- 
viction — hence the church was contaminated with a 
motley crowd of concealed idolaters ; and who no 
doubt took an active part in exciting and prolonging 
the spirit of discord. 

The Meletian controversy began respecting the 
jurisdiction and extent of power of the Bishop of Al- 
exandria ; but it gradually assumed a more direct 
form, by having some religious opinions incorporated 
with it. This dispute divided the church during a 
long season, and baffled every attempt to extirpate 
it. So irreconcilable were the Meletians and the 
Alexandrians, that no mode of uniting them could be 
discovered. 

A short time after, Eustathius produced a wide 
spread discord through all the western part of Asia j 
his system would have destroyed not only the order 
and happiness but even the existence of society. He 
prohibited marriage, the use of wine and flesh, en- 
joined immediate divorce to them who were united 
in matrimony, and permitted children and servants 
to violate the commands ef their superiors upon re^ 



©ENTURT IVi 95 

ligious pretexts. The disorders and confusion thus 
excited, were of the most baneful effects and long 
continuance. 

Another dissension arose respecting the identity 
of Bishops and Presbyters in the New Testament ; 
and as this attacked all the power, and pomp, and 
pride, and dignity of the Prelates, it is not surprizing 
that the contest should have been violent and exten-- 
sive. To this was subjoined an aversion from the 
superstitions which were then prevalent ; and thin 
enlarged the dispute ; for the Bishops were striving 
for their usurpations, and their inferiors for their vain 
ceremonies and pageantry ; but the reformers were 
finally overpowered by numbers, and by the increase 
of ignorance and corruption. 

But the most celebrated in importance, extensioB, 
and duration, of all the controversies, was that which 
involved the principles of the famous Origen. In the 
eastern part of the empire particularly, this frivolous 
dispute filled every region with malignity, vexation 
and disorder. So high was the reputation, so vast 
the inihicnce of Origen's name and writings, that 
every party in all the controversies invariably ap- 
pealed to him, and endeavoured to derive sanction 
whether for truth or error from his multifarious writ* 
ings. Between the operation of conflicting passionB| 
envy at his elevation, rage against those who defend- 
ed him, bitterness against those who opposed him, 
and the rancour of the different partizansin the dis- 
putes, the whole empire was agitated, and in a de- 
gree distracted. 

//. The Government and Teachers of the Church. 

Essentially the administration of the church was 
not changed, but the pre-existent forms were model- 
led by Constantine so as to form the hierarchy, ae 
exact counterpart to the civil constitution which he 
had established. In fact, he was the head of thcr 
Church, and his authority no man pretended to dis- 
pute. One privilege the Saints still enjoyed, the 
<^hoice of their own Pastors and Teacher* ; hut the 



96 ECCLESIASTICAL HiSTOtlY. LECTURE V. 

whole of this right was finallj extirminated in the 
plenitude of princely and papal power. The prima- 
ry a.ct was an exckision of the people from ail part 
in the administration of Ecclesiastical bushiess ; then 
the Bishops divested the Presbyters of any partici- 
pation in the direction of the church ; and thus they 
perfectly monopolized the possessions and revenues 
of the people, which were contributed and exacted 
for the professed support of the Gospel. And as in 
all the tumults respecting the election of the Bisiiops, 
the minority usually appealed to the Emperor, the 
result was, an usurpation by the Bishops of the rights 
of the people ; and the transfer of all Ecclesiastical 
concerns to the civil magistrates. 

The Bishops of Rome, Antioch, and Alexandria, 
had, prior to this period, been considered as pre-em- 
inent — to Avhom was added after the transfer of the 
imperial residence from Rome, the Bishop of Con- 
stantinople. These divisions introduced tlie conven- 
tion of councils to decide religious controversies, 
and to regulate all the peculiar affairs ol the church- 
es. An accurate idea may be formed of the nature 
and character of these bodies from one fact. Theo- 
dosius the Great, summoned a council to meet at 
Constantinople; and among tlie other Bishops who 
were directed to attend — Gregory Nazianzen was 
invited. That great man refused, and in his reply 
to the Emperor, after reciting his virtues, which he 
loved, and his authority which he acknowledged, he 
stated, that he could not conscientiously be present, 
for he would not voluntarily take a seat among chat- 
tering cranes and stupid geese, and that he had 
never seen or heard of any benefit having flowed from 
these councils ; but rather that they were sources 
of division and contention. — The history of nearly 
1500 years has fully corroborated the justice of his 
©pinion. 

But to preserve the order of prophetic narrative ; 
it must be remembered that the seeds of papal su- 
premacy were now exhibiting their fertility ; the mag- 



CENTURY IV. 



97 



Mificence, the we:i!th, the power, and the patronage 
of the Bishop of Rome had so enormouslj increased, 
that the attiiiiiment of that station was the highest 
object of human ombilion. Yet to counteract this, 
the Bishop of Constantinople was considered as his 
equal— and the strife which originated in this preten- 
ded cquahty, finally conductexl those churches and 
the adherents of the two differing Bishops into that 
separation which still exists between the Greek and 
Roman professors of Christianity. Both equally ig- 
norant and servile, and of course alike bigotted, even 
after the lapse of 1400 years. 

It would be impossible here to recapitulate the 
names only of the various writers of the fourth centu- 
ty ; among them however, we cannot overlook Euse- 
bius, whose history forms the chief detail of that pe- 
i*iod — Athanasius the august opponent of the Arian 
Heresy — Chrysostom, w^hose profound and extensive 
Erudition, proving his noble genius, still survives in 
his works, and especially famous for his extraordina- 
ry eloquence, whence he procured the name of" Sil- 
ver Tongue." 

Gregory Nazianzen, Lactantius, Ambrose, Jerome 
and Augustine also must not be forgotten. Jerome 
is most deservedly esteemed for his versions of the 
Sacred Scriptures, which still constitute the stand- 
ard text of our sacred oracles, and who if he were 
now alive, w^ould no doubt be employed in the most 
arduous duties of the Bible Societies. But who can 
delineate a portrait of Augustine, whose fame was 
bounded only by the limits of Christianity ? The 
sublimity of his genius, his indefatigable zeal for 
truth, his continued application, his patience, piety 
and learning, all have raised him to a pinnacle, the 
foundation of which, neither time nor opposition can 
remove. 

///. 1 he Ceremonies. 

It is among the most wonderful of all the events 
recorded in the history of the church of a minor kind, 
that Auo'ustine should have been reduced to the mor- 

N 



98 



ECCLESIA&l'ICAL HISTORt. LJfiCTURE V. 



tiijing confession, that " the yoke under wiiich the 
Jews formerly groaned, was moi-e tolerable than that 
imposed upon many Christians in his time." 

Vast numbers of the Pagan ceremonies were intro- 
duced into the idolatrous worship, and their obser- 
vances with trivial alterations were incorporated int® 
the service of the one true God. Who can reliect 
without regret, that the decorum of pure and unde- 
filed religion was enveloped in mitres, robes, proces- 
sions and pageantry ?— and its spirituality sacrificed 
for the richness of the churches, and the honour of 
those who contributed to their erection. 
,- The temples of idolatry were in a great measure 
subveried by the effects of Cons tontine's government^ 
but III their stead many splendid buildings were ele- 
vated- — and to those who builded them was allotted 
the right of appointing a Preacher. This afforded to 
every patron the power of selecting his own Minister 
and Ceremonies. From this cause partly arose the 
numberless festivals, holidays, and days of fastino-, 
which from indolence on one point, and debility on 
the other, must incredibly have contributed to the 
depopulation of the world. 

During this century also, may be easily discerned 
the commencement of the Mass, for the Bishops used 
to elevate the bread and wine above their heads that 
the multitude might look and adore ; in this was the 
origin of Transubstantiation, 

IV, The Heresies. 

It is scarcely possible to denominate the Donatists, 
Heretics ; yet their conduct was at total variance 
from all harntony. The contest arose from the elec^ 
tion of a Bishop, and in fact was never decided until 
the Pope of Rome ingulphed the contenders: but the 
most lamentable part of the fact is, that these dispu- 
tants who filled all the Roman empire with the worst 
of all conflagration, the fire of ignorance, impudence 
and bigotry, were at the same time united upon eve- 
ry evangelical principli^ wUicJi involved tbeaalvation 
of the soul. 



CENTITB-V IV. 99 

The most important and durable of the controver- 
sies of this period, Avas the Arian contention. Arian 
was a word very commonly used ; but it is difiicult 
to state exactly what doctrine Arius believed. One 
truth must be admitted — the whole mystic body of 
Christ had without interruption believed most sol- 
emnly, that there was a real difference and distinc- 
tion between the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost, 
but all existing in an incomprehensible and divine 
Unity. 

Arius opposed this position by affirming that the 
Lord Jesus was merely a delegated Sovereign, 
and the Holy Ghost an emanation from the Deity. 
This Arian doctrine however was not ratified by the 
Council of Nice as the indubitable belief of their An- 
cestors, but totally denied ; and although it received 
all possible sanction from many of the Roman Emper- 
ors, and Gothic and Vandal Kings, it still could not 
preserve its buoyancy, but sank to its present degra- 
dation ; a few only, and those it is to be feared but 
nominal Christians, professing their faith in sucli 
palpable contradictions. 



Four of the Apocalyptical trumpcts-^the extension of the 
truth— the doctrines — the rites and the ceremonies of the 
church during the fifth and sixth centurir^.s. 



Nothing can more efTectuallj establish our faith iii 
Divine Revelation, than the remembrance that the 
Apocalypse was written nearly 1730 years since ; and 
that all its primary predictions have received the 
most exact consummation. We are now to enter 
upon anew division of its wondrousiy figurative de- 
scriptions; and it is a very remarkable fact, that In- 
fidel writers have unintentionally confirmed Apoca- 
lyptical delineations by using scriptural metaphors 
in their history of the fifth and sixth centuries. 

That we may be enabled as far as possible to ad- 
here to the order of John's vision, we shall enlarge 
the present review to include the most striking fea-. 
tures of the church until the evolution of the Moham- 
medan apostacy. 

This part of the prophecy, the eighth chapter of 
the Revelation by John includes a period of nearly 
two hundred years. The silence, the duration of the 
calm of the church, was foreseen to cotinue but half 
an hour, that is for a very short term ; then the angels 
received their trumpets; while the fire cast from the 
censer upon the earth was emblematical of the wo 
which the voices, thunderings, lightnings and the 
earthquake predicted. 

" The first aogel sounded,'"' &c. This doubtless 
refers to the desolations committed by Alaric and 
Attila the scourge of God, who boasted that "grass 
never grew where, his horse once trod.'' He appears to 
have beea a fiend incarnate ; whose sole delight was 



QENTURY V. VIv lOi 

pillage, murder, barbarity, fire and desolation without 
bouads and without end. Seven hundred thousand 
of the Huns and Goths extended themselves from the 
Euxine sea to Italy, and totally extirpated 70 cities, 
besides devastating the whole eastern part of Eu- 
rope. 

'' The second angel sounded, &c." This prophe- 
cy seems to have been the vision of Genseric's suc- 
cess in Africa and his conquest of Rome. He and 
his myriads of Vandals crossed the streightsof Gib- 
raltar, and having taken possession of the whole 
coast from Tangier to Tripoli perpetrated the most 
indescribable atrocities. Rome was pillaged by these 
inhuman monsters during fourteen days, and the hor- 
rors of a large city doomed to the unrestrained fury, 
licentiousness and rapine of a horde of Scythian Sa- 
vages, who can delineate ? He was as a great moun- 
taiii of fne, who transformed that part of the Empire 
where he ravaged, into a general Aceldama, a field 
of blood, 

'• The third angel sounded, &c." This trumpet's 
blast, was accompanied by the destruction of the 
imperial authority- — for in the year 476, iiugustulus 
w as excluded from his station by Odoacer king of the 
Heruh, and the whole Roman empire exhibited only 
one unceasing and universal display of contention, dis- 
cord and battle, in Italy, Africa, Spain, Gaul and 
Britain, the contests were fierce and uninterrupted 
between the natives and their barbarian invaders, 
and all the calamities which ever attend internal com- 
motion, like wormood, embittered every condition of 
society, and shortened the lives of infinite numbers 
of the wretched inhabitants. 

'■' The fourth aogel sounded, &c." Here we have a 
very graphical portraiture of the final extinction of all 
the system which had been incorporated into the Ro- 
man government. About the year 566, Justin, the em- 
peror abohshed the senate, consular office, and all 
the magistracy; Rome was degraded from the state 
^f a metropolis to a tributary; so that the sun, moon 



102 ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. LFXTURE \1. 

and stars, prophetical titles to designate the various 
orders ol the public administration, were all involve 
ed in the same impervious night. 

After these four angels had sounded ; another an- 
gel was seen flying in the midst of heaven, pronounc- 
ing for the inhabitants of the earth three wos, when 
the fifth, sixth, and seventh angels should blow their 
trumpets. 

If the spirit of prophecy had not previously revealed 
the fact, and did not ail concurring testimony evince 
its truth, it would be absolutely incredible, that in so 
short a period, the glorious effulgence of the Gospel 
could have become so obscured ; and that during so 
many centuries, hence until the Reformation, with par- 
tial exceptions, the history of the Christian church is 
the narrative of a land of darkness, and of the shadow 
of death. 

The Roman Empire after the decease of Theodo* 
sius was divided between Arcadius who resided at 
Constantinople, and Honorius who ruled the western 
provinces. But the latter portion was subverted e- 
ventually by the irruptions of the Huns, the Goths, and 
the Vandals ; and although a formal subjection was 
admitted to the Emperor of the East ; yet they govern- 
ed with absolute independence, and the authority of 
Constantine's successor was merely nominal. 

Notwithstanding all the commotions and calamities 
which desolated the empire, and which were so des- 
tructive to " pure and undefiled religion," the ancient 
idolatry gradually disappeared. Theodosius the 
younger zealously engaged in the august duty of pro- 
moting its extinction : he either demolished the Hea- 
then temples, or dedicated them to Christian devo- 
tion ; extirpated, as much as possible, the pagan fes- 
tivals and ceremonies ; and excluded all Polytheists, 
from public offices and honors. 

One circumstance connected with the overthrow 
of the ancient Roman order, is too remarkable not to 
he noticed. The barbarous hordes who pursued the 
work of universal devastation, although Paganfe, e- 



GENTURY V. V^. 103 

^ually iga©rant and ferocious, instead of displaying 
any peculiar malignity against Christianity as a sys- 
tem, or its disciples, purely on that account, as soon 
as they had reduced the countries which they invad- 
ed, universally assumed the profession and the exte- 
rior observances of the church ; and thus became em- 
bodied with the original inhabitants. " The earth 
helped the woman." 

The following particulars comprise the narrative 
of that which is requisite to enable us to form a cor- 
rect idea of the Redeemer's kingdom, during the fifth 
•and sixth centuries. 

/. The Extensio7i of the Truth. 

In the east, the tribes who resided near the moua- 
tains of Lebanon, embodied themselves with the pro- 
fessed followers of the Lamb that was slain ; and also 
the scattered nations who dw eit between the Euxine 
sea, and Mount Caucasus. Many of the Barbarians 
who had united in the division of the Empire, the 
Burgundians, Goths and Franks, Avere also induced to 
submit to Christianity. The Irish likewise in large 
numbers acknowledged their belief in the son of God 
— while many of the Picts, Scots, British and their 
Saxon Masters, pretended to embrace the Gospel of 
Christ. 

The Jews also, in multitudes rejected their hatred 
and obstinacy and worshipped their crucified Messiah. 
But it is proper to develope the causes and the nature 
of these conversions which are so pompously and so 
exultingiy detailed by some of the ancient historians. 
The change of the eastern nations was confined to a 
declaration of their belief in Jesus, a surrender of 
their idolatrous sacrifices, and the recitation of short 
creeds or catechisms. But there is no evidence to 
authorise the opinion that their ferocious tempers, 
their uncivilized manners, their impious licentious-* 
ness, or their idolatrous attachments, w^ere in any 
percept i hie measure, subdued by evangelical doc- 
trine and authority. 

While ko we ver,^ it must Idc admitted, that merit ell 



104 EGCLESIATICAL HIST0R\. LECTt'KE VI, 

eulogj may be justly gi^en to many of those who zea- 
lously endeavored as Missionaries to '^ turn men from 
d'arkness to light;" yet it is irrefragable, that dread 
of imperial and royal power, hope of emolument and 
the anticipation of asistance, to resist the assaults of 
the still surrounding Pagans, constituted the chief mo- 
tives hj which so many were impelled to desist from 
the external exhibitions of their ancient idolatry. An 
exemplification of this general truth is indispensable. 
The remaining barbarians who resided on the boun- 
daries of the Roman Empire, especially in Europe^ 
valued the excellency of a religion in proportion to 
the advantages which attended the wars of those who 
professed it ; and as the Romans had been most victo- 
rious, and their empire included the largest space ; 
they inferred that Christ, whom the Romans worship- 
ped as God, was the most profitable and just object 
of lionour and acknowledgement. 

From this impulse, Clovis King of the Franks, vow- 
ed that if Christ would give him victory over his en- 
emies, he would adore him as the true God. Having 
been successful; we are assured, that after he and 3000 
of his people had been baptized, Remigius preached 
a sermon on the Lord's death and passion ; during the 
discourse, the King cried out in a loud voice, ^' if I 
had been there with my Franks, that should not have 
happened." It is also worthy of commemoi^ation, that 
with the exception of Clouds, from whom the French 
monarchs derive their title of Most Christian King, 
and eldest son of the Church, all the other potentates 
who seized upon different portions of the Roman em- 
pire, were either semi-Pagans, or adherents of Arian- 
ism. Respecting the Jews, the majority bowed to 
Christ, not from the energy of truth, or attachment 
to the Gospel: but from the seduction of proiFered 
wealth or emolument, or the fear of persecution. But 
one fact concerning them is too singular to be omit* 
ted. " In the time of Theodosius the younger, an im- 
postor arose, called MoseJ Cretensis. He pretended 
fh be a .second Moses, sent to deliver the Jews wh© 



CENTURY V. VI. 



105 



dwelt iu Ihe island of Crete; and promised to divide 
the sea, and give them a safe passage through it to the 
coatiiieiit. They assembled with their wives and chil- 
dren on a promontory. There he directed them to 
f:ast themselves into the sea. Many obeyed and per- 
ished ; while some who had complied, were saved. 
The deluded Jews would have killed the Impostor 
for his pretensions ; but he escaped, disappeared and 
was seen no more." This wonderful instance of in- 
fatuation became the means of their voluntary subTils- 
sion to the authority oflmmanuel. 

Hence it is evident, that the name only of christii?vi~ 
Ity was extended — no self-denial and little restraint 
upon their passions were required of these new con- 
verts; and the exchange was almost invisible from the 
worship of idols, to a similar adoration of the statues 
and images of Christ, the Virgin Maly and the Saints. 

//. The Doctrmss and Controversies of the Church. 

The subjects of determination as points of doctrine 
which occupied the attention of this period, were 
principally upon the person and nature of Christ, hu- 
man depravity, and the various topics connected with 
the natural powers of man, the necessity of divine 
grace, and the freedom of Xiie human will. By the 
Donatists was perpetoated with the utmost obstinacy 
the contest concerning the purity of the church; for 
they differed in no point of doctrine from their breth- 
ren. It was a question respecting solely the choice, 
and election of a Bishop of Carthage ; but it agitated 
the whole empire, divided the opinions of all parts of 
the church, and during 200 years, iiiled Africa with 
blood and war; but towards the close of the fifth cen- 
tury, it disappeared and ceased to exist. 

The Arian heresy, which affirmed (hat the Lord Je- 
sus and the Holy Ghost were ordy creatures, was ge- 
nerally received by the diiierent nations who coi^quer- 
ed the Roman Empire. Prior to their irruptions, the 
Arianshad been severely oppressed and persecuted 
by the rigour of the imperial edicts. A recollection of 
the injuries which they had sustained^ animated them 

Q 



lOG JiCCLE-aiASTICAL HISTORY. LECTURE VU 

with revenge which was maiii Tested in acts of the ut- 
most barbarity. The Vandals in Africa under Gen- 
seric and Hunneric. demolished the places of worship, 
and most dreadfully tormented those who were in- 
flexible in adhering to their profession of the truth 
as it is in Jesus. AVhether the followin<x remarkable- 
event must be ascribed to natural causes, or to mifa- 
culou^ interposition, will continue to be controverted; 
but of its actual occurrence, the most ample and au- 
thentic evidence remains. Hunneric on some occa- 
sion commanded the tongues of a number of those 
pious men, who believed in the divinity of our Lord 
and Saviour, to be eradicated. After the execution 
of this outrageously inhuman sentence, the wretched 
sufferers were enabled to proclaim distinctly, the god- 
like honors of Jesus Christ. 

About the yea# 550, the Arians were very numeroufi 
and triumphant, in large districts of Europe, Asia and 
Africa. This ^t'onni^ooc/ impregnated the rivers and 
fountains of waters ; but its exultation w^as only tem- 
porary ; the exclusion of the Vandals from Africa, 
and of the Goths from Italy, by Justinian, and 
the abandonment of the heresy by the Burgund- 
ians and the Suevi, Avere a death-blow to Arianism ; 
so that from the sixth century, this system has never 
exhibited any enero:y or grasped any amplitude ; hav- 
ing been swallowed up in its offspring, the delusions 
of the Prophet of Mecca. 

Another most deplorable and widely extensive di- 
vision arose in (consequence of a controversy respect- 
ing the person of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Prim- 
itive Christians had always believed that the Re- 
deemer was true God and true man ; but the myste- 
ry respecting the manner and effect of this union of 
the two natures had never been discussed.- "That 
Cvhnsi w^as one divine person, in whom two natures 
were inseparably united, without confusion," was 
the uniform opinion of the Believers, with very 
few exceptions, until Arius promulgated his er- 
rors. It is scarcely practicaWe t^ state the true 



CE.VTURY V. VI. 



107 



point of this \erbal strife in intelligible language. 
Some of the writers avowed their opinions in terms 
whicfi led to the doctrine, that the divine nature in 
the Saviour had absorbed the manhood ; their oppo- 
nents, to avoid this extreme, expressed themselves as 
if the Messiah were two distinct persons. This is 
generally known as the Nestorian coiitroversy, which 
was finally subdivided into several sects. But we 
shall attain the most luminous view of this lamentabk 
discord, by adverting to one point. That title which 
has since the fifth century become the source of so 
much idolatry among the Papists, had already been 
applied to the Virgin Mary ; in consequence of the 
disputes against the Arians, sbe Avas usually denomi- 
nated, '<- the Mother of God." To us, nothing can be 
more absurd and blasphemous, than the appropria- 
tion and use of such a pernicious epithet. The 
Nestorians most fervently contended against this title, 
and urged that she ought to be designated, only as 
^' the Mother of Christ." A general council of the 
Bishops and Rulers of the Church was held at Ephe- 
sus in the year 431 — from which every thing that Avas 
candid, upright, and decent was completely exclud- 
ed ; all their transactions being conducted with des- 
picable cunning, unjust irregularity, and the utmost 
turbulence and rage. Nestorius was not only con- 
demned without an opportunity of defence; but even, 
although he utterly denied the charges of heresy al- 
leged against him, and also notwithstanding he declar- 
ed most solemnly his utter detestation of the doctrines 
imputed to him. In short, it has now^ become the 
concurrent decision of almost ali the Theologians of 
every age. that the Council and Nestorius differed 
not in sentiments, but in the words which they adopt- 
ed to explain them : and that the ori2:in and prolonga- 
tion of the dissension must bo attributed entirely to 
the arrogance and pride of Cyril, the Bishop of Al- 
exandria, and Celestine, Bishop of Rome, with their 
aversion from Nestorius, who vv as Bishop of Constan- 
tinople, and against whom they had already pro 



103 ECCLESIASTXCAL BISTORT. LECTURE VI. 

muiged twelve most furious anathemas. He was 
eventually exiled ; but their body, as well as some 
of their original opponents, still exist in various 
parts of Eastern Asia and Northern Africa. 

The Pelagian controversv, which has been more 
famous, permanent and extensive than all the others, 
originated in the early part of the fifth century. The 
doctrines universally received, "- that human nature 
is originally corrupt ; and that divine grace is neces- 
sary to illuminate the understanding and to sanctify 
the heart,*' Pelagius ptnd Ceiestius opposed. On the 
contrary, they averred, " that the sin of Adam and 
Eve, was not imputed to their posterity ; that we 
derive no jCX>rruption from their transgressions ; that 
children are born now as pure and holy as Adam 
was created ; that mankind are in themselves capa- 
ble of repentance and amendment ; that they have 
no need of the internal assistance of the holy spirit ; 
that baptism is not the seal of the remission of sins, 
but a mark of admission to the kingdom of heaven; 
and that good works are not only meritorious, but the 
sole conditions of salvation." 

These positions were generally and immediately 
condemned, whenever, and as soon as they were pro- 
mulged. Aogostin had urged with irresistible force 
and effect, that divine grace was the unmerited gift 
of God, and indispensable to the salvation of men. 
Hence arose a new sect, the members of which, with 
Cassian as their head, resolved to combine the dis- 
cordancies between the Predestiuarians and the Pe- 
lagians by opening a path, midway between the twp 
extremes. These vvere denominated Semi-Pelagians. 
Their doctrine may thus be described. ^^Grace is not 
necessary to originate the iirst movements of penitence 
and melioration; these can be produced by every man 
by the exertion of his own faculties; and all persons can 
thus believe in Christ and resolve upon evangelical 
obedience : but no persons can persevere and ad- 
vance in that holiness and virtue which they com- 
menced, withoutthe perpetual support and assistance 



CENTURV V. VI. 1Q9 

of divine Grace. Their fundamental tenets were; 
*-that God did not dispense his grace to one more 
than another^ but was willing to save all men, if they 
complied withtlje terms of the gospel — that Christ 
died for ail men — that the Grace of Christ was offer- 
ed to all men — that man before he received grace was 
capable of faith and holy desires, and that man be- 
ing born free, could resist or comply with the influ- 
ences of the Koly Spirit." 

This metaphysical and truly incomprehensible sub- 
ject has continued to divide and alienate the church 
of Christ through every succeeding generation ; and 
is even now as eagerly contested, and the dispu- 
tants are as widely separated as if it were the first 
perceptible eruption of the Volcano. Augustine's 
followers are generally found among those denomi- 
nated Calvinists — while the Arminians derive their 
origin from the Pelagians. In every age however, 
endless have been the modification of these opinions, 
from the mystery of Supralapsarianism to the Infi- 
del maxim, that "men possess naturally the pov/erto 
obey the divine law in perfection." During this con- 
troversy, Pelagius, who denied the original depra- 
vity of human nature, was charged with invalidatin®*^ 
by his doctrine, the ordinance of infant baptism, with 
its propriety and necessity ; he indignantly replied, 
that he was not a Pagan — for not a single individual, 
no one sect of Christians, even though avowed He- 
retics, had dared to deny, that Infant Baptism was 
the practice or injunction of the Apostles ; or that it 
had not been perpetuated by their authority and ex- 
ample : for when an Idolater was baptized and re- 
ceived into the Church, all his Children and house- 
hold also, whoever the inmates might be, were con» 
jftidered subjects of the ordinance. 

Amid all these controversies, the progress of su- 
perstition in principle and practice, was steady and 
uniform. The souls of departed Christians became 
the objects of constant invocation ; and as it was be- 
lieved, that they still continued to hover about the 



110 ECCLESIASTICAL HISTGKY. LECTUJaE VI. 

places where their bodies were entombed, their se- 
pulchres became the ])laces where this abhorrent 
worship was statedly performed. Images of these 
dead disciples were erected, and by the adoption of 
the old Pagan notion, that when the statues of Jupi- 
ter, B:?.cchus and Venus were erected, those fictiti- 
ous Gods were really present and propitious to their 
devotees, so the deluded Christians attached a simi- 
lar hupernatural efficacy and incorporation to their 
anti-evangelical idols. To the bones of the Martyrs 
and to the figure of the cross, was attributed an ener- 
gy ii-resistible in counteracting ail calamities, and in 
extirpating all mental and corporeal maladies. An- 
cient Heathen institutions, in pilgrimages, supplica- 
tions, and festivals to their demons and temples, were 
continued with very trivial changes, and thus the 
most odious pa,rt of the idolatrous mythology was 
embodied in the practice of the Christian Church. 
Hence the doctrine of purgatory, the worship of ima- 
ges and saints, the power of relics, and the efficacy 
of good works, had assumed a regular establishment 
and a permanent character ; which continued to au^-- 
ment in diffusion and influence, until they enveloped 
in darkness the whole evangelical empire. 
///. The rites and ceremonies. 
The external frippery and meretricious glare com- 
bined with the worship of God during the fifth and 
sixth centuries, exceed all credibility. Robes adorn- 
ed with 'the most costly and gaudy embellishments 
were introduced into the service of the Sanctuary as 
Priestly decorations. An unceasing choir of music 
was maintained in many places, which was never in- 
terrupted; but the choristers resounded their chaunts 
day and night, in bodies succeeding each other, as 
if the adversary could be extirpated, or the Judge 
appeased by unceasing sounds. We may almost 
wonder at the inquiry; to what region, all the 
wealth of the Roman empire at that period could 
have migrated ? when Ave are assured, that the bones, 
sculls, teeth, nails and various suppositious relics of 



CENTURY V. \U 1 1 1 

llie deaJ Martyrs were sacredly preserved in caskets 
and closets of solid silver and gold ; while the ima- 
ges of the Virgin Mary nursing the holy child Jesus 
were adorned and enriched with all that superstition 
could prescribe or imperial wealth procure. The 
mapnificcnce and pomp of all the other utensHs. em- 
ployed in the service of the church may thereibre 
easdy be conceived ; and the immensity of the value 
must he estimated from the universality of the extra- 
vagance. 

Two circumstances in the history of these centu- 
ries strongly develope that total degeneracy of man- 
ners which had become too general to be diminished 
by any counteraction then existing or discoverable. 
During the era of persecutions, the Brethren and 
Sisters had held Agapa, Feasts of Charity, where v 
all the sanctity, and all the consolations of Christian 
love had ever encouraged and inllamed the Saints in 
their anticipations of immediate nia r ty rd om ; these 
assemblies inconsequence of the riot and licentious- 
ness which they occasioned were totally dissolved. 

But the proof and the cause of still more detesta- 
ble enormities originated in consequence of a decre- 
tal issued by Leo, Bishop of Rome. It had always 
been customary for offenders against the dicipline of 
the Church, publicly to acknowledge their guilt be- 
fore the whole Congregation, prior to their restora- 
ion to the communion of the faithful; but this pro- 
genitor of the Pope, directed that any penitent who 
privately confessed his sins to a Priest regularly ap^ 
pointed for that duty, should be absolved from guilt,, 
and restored to the communion in the same estima- 
tion as if he had openly declared his contrition be- 
fore the assembly at large ; thus all restraint upon 
impurity, and every shield of female modesty were 
totally exterminated. 

A vast variety of unmeaning ceremonies, and the? 
utmost absurdity of gorgeous display, were intro- 
duced into the celebration of the ordinances. The 
prefession ©f the candidate was absorbed in the M-- 



112 lEGCLESIASTieAL HlSTOPa^ 'L'FX'TURE Vf.' 

liness with which it was accompanied ; and the death 
of the Redeemer was forgotten in the preposterous 
ritual with which thej pretended to comoiemorate 
that wondrous event. To consummate this mourn" 
ful record, it only remains to be added, that to ap- 
pease the Pagan converts, who were chagrined at 
the loss of their Bacchanalian orgies and feasts of 
Pan, several festivals were instituted at the same 
seasons, and the only difierence perceptible was the 
alteration of a name ; Venus for Mary ; and Bacchus 
or Pan for John. This is the counterpart of an an- 
ecdote related of the most revered Latimer; who,* 
preaching before Henry VIII. respecting his attempts 
to combine Popery and Protestantism, reprobated the 
scheme in most stern denunciation, and declared that 
it was all Mingle-Mangle ; and truly, ihej of the 5th 
and 6th centuries mingle-mangled all together; wheia 
^ey displaced Venus to set up " Lady Mary, the 
Mother of God," and when they only divested Mer- 
cury of his laurel coronet, to put on the MonkV 
Square Cap, and write upon its front, Peter. 

The church government during this period, with 
some other topics are omitted ; as it will be necessary 
to develope them more largely in their connection, 
when we illustrate the rise and progress of the Anti- 
Ghristian Babylon. 

Of the Christian Authors during these centuries 
nothing of sufficient importance to attract our atten- 
tion in these lectures, either as individuals or in their 
writings, exists. 

This is a wretched wilderness over which to cast 
our eyes — during two hundred years the church of 
God appears to have been a complete exemplifica- 
tion of the affecting statement made by Asaph with 
regard to Israel — Psalm 80: 8-— 19. 

Notwithstanding all this general gloom, some light 
shone or Christians would not have suffered persecu- 
cution. We have a common proverb ; and however 
thoughtlessly or even improperly used and appro- 
priated, it is a solemn momentous truth in connec- 



<:|!:NTURt V. VI. 113 

tioii with lliC C^ospei of Christ, " The "Devil helps his 
own." Wicked men have seldom or never shared in 
the tortures of Christians; for in fact, the rage of hell 
would never be kindled against its own devoted 
earthly adherents; therefore, when we read that the 
solemnities of religion and the claims of humanity; 
the innocence of evangelical rectitude, and th^' v^cMic 
temper of a Christian's walk; the irradiations of Gos- 
pel trulli, and the universal seal of Divinity stamped 
upon the revelation of the Son of God; were ail inef- 
fectual to restrain the relentless rage of barbarian 
malignity, we may reasonably judge, that the major- 
ity at least of those incalculable multitudes who per- 
ished in every variety of cruelty, and ignominy and 
exquisite torments, in Gaul, Britain, Germany, Italy, 
Greece and especially in Persia, chiefly, if not alto- 
gether, ibr their inllexible adhesion to the Gospel of 
Christ, before the Idolaters among whom in conse- 
quence of their having been subdued, they contin- 
Xiued to reside ; was part of that glorious army of 
Martyrs who are now singing the song of Moses and 
the Lan;ib, ''Great are thy works, Lord God Almighty; 
just and true arQ thy ways, thou King of Saints ! " 



P 



The Apocalyptical prsatctions respecting the- Arahian j\io^ 
hammedans and the Turhs—the superstitions.^ ignorance^ 
discord and depravity of the Greek church ivithin their 
dominions^ until *•' the blessed Reformation,^'^ 



We have now arrh ed upon the confines of thaf 
period emphatically denominated the 1260 years ; 
at the commencement of which was exhibited the rise 
of that duplicate alienation from the Gospel of Christ, 
the Mohammedan Apostacy and the Roman corrup- 
tions. These have uniformly been designated as the 
dark ages, in which ignorance and vitiosity maintain- 
ed a resistless and an almost universal sway. Evan- 
gelical simplicity, illuminatidn and purity were effa- 
ced by pompous superstitions, unreserved submission 
to a Monk's directions, and the utmost licentiousness 
sanctioned by a Mendicant's plenary absolution. For 
the sake of perspicuity, the two divisions of Anti- 
christ shall be separately reviewed in their rise, pro- 
gress and distinctive characteristics. 

After the blast of the fourth trumpet, a pause ensu-* 
ed; during which interval, the Apostle heard the an- 
gel who fled through the midst of heaven, denounce 
the three wos which the inhabitants of the earth 
should experience, " by reason of the other voices of 
the trumpets which, the remaining angels are yet to 
sound!" Revelation 9 : 1 — 11. 

This prophecy delineates the origin and success of 
Mohammedanism. When the trumpet resounded, 
the Prophet saw a star fall from heaven, which held 
the key of the bottomless pit; and having opened it, 
a caliginous smoke issued, that darkened the sun 
and air ; those black confused doctrines which obs- 
cured the pure light of r^ violation. This star has 



CENtURIES VII — .^VI. 115 

been applied to the apostate monk Sorgius, who was 
the principal writer of the Koran, and peculiarly sub- 
servient to the designs of the Arabian impostor. But 
an insurmountable objection may be urged ; it refers 
a pre-eminent rank in prophecy, to one of the most 
©bscure individuals in the history of the world. 

From the most accurate cornputation, it is suffici- 
ently demonstrable, tliat in their commencement, 
the grand features of their domination, and in their 
extirpation, the two apostacies nearly synclironize. 
But this remarkable coincidence justities the belief, 
that the fallen star denotes the chief corrupter of 
Christianity. The star fell from heaven unto earth, 
precisely at the sounding of the fifth trumpet, anteri- 
or to the appearance of the locusts, and consequently 
preceded, though almost imperceptibly, the Moham- 
medan imposture. " Pure and undefiled Religion" 
had been almost concealed from sight by the author- 
ized worship of images, saints and angels, prayers for 
the dead, and other papal inventions; which subse- 
quent to the close of the period allotted to the fourth 
trumpet, had disfigured the countenance and defiled 
the character of the chiirch. The Ijead of these absur- 
dities unlocked the abyss, removed the obstacles ircin 
the way of the Impostor, and formed the pretext Ibr 
his mission: and the harmony of the prophetical rec- 
ords with reference to the Eastern and Western Apos- 
tacies, requires us to admit, (hat not an individual, 
either as the fallen star, or as the King of the locusts, 
Apollyon, was intended ; but that succession of men 
who corrupted the Gospel, and of Caliphs who ex- 
emplified their legal claim to the title of'' the Anp-e! 
of tlie bottomless pit." 

The accuracy of this vision renders it a condensed 
history of the Mohammedans, during the 150 ye?rs 
which ensued after the first public declaration tliat 
the Arabian made of his celestial appointment. 

Locusts strictly signified tlic Saraxen armi'^s : 
they originated in ilie same regions ; in numbers thev 
were almost incalculable; and ihey eprecd desolatiii'n 



116 ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. LECTtJRE Yll. 

throiigli all the Roman empire. Scorpions hy their 
sting produce extreme pain, which is often succeeded 
hy death : but in their compound character, these 
men were enjoined not to devastate the earth, but to 
slay all those '' men who had not the seal of God up- 
on their foreheads." The literal direction of this 
command was obeyed ; for they were prohibited to 
injure any fruits, or to destroy any cattle, except that 
which was necessary for their food : and it is an irre- 
sistible demonstration of the certainty of the ^'scrip- 
ture of truth," that the conquests of those scorpion- 
locusts principally extended, where the greatest cor- 
ruptions of the Gospel had been admitted. They had 
no power to kill the nations : though they grievously 
ravaged many parts of the Greek and Latin churches, 
they could not exterminate thcDi : before Constan- 
tinople they were always repulsed ; Rome, they could 
not demohsh. A locust lives precisely five months; 
and for the same prophetical duration, were these 
permitted to torture the nations. Accordingly, from 
the public declaratioosofMoham.med's delusions, 150 
years elapsed, before Bagdad, the city of peace was 
erected, the locusts terminated their conquests, and 
their pov/er gradually deolioed. Locusts in their 
heads resenil">le horses ; and the Mohammedans were 
peculiarly skilful Equestrians. The Crowns denote 
their turbans and otiier badges of majesty, or the ex- 
tension of their sway; their faces exhibited a maaiy 
beard, while their hair was decorated alter the fash- 
ion of women : their lion-toeth prefigured their enra- 
ged force : their iron breast-])lates bespoke their en- 
ergy in self-defence : their wings lucidly develope the 
rapidity of their victories and thefiiry of their assaults^ 
and their scorpioo-stings , diffused the Impostor's poi- 
son, which generated more injury to the souls, than 
their barbarities inflicted misery upon the bodies of 
men The li^e of their king was peculiarly empha- 
tic and applicable; Abaddon, the destroyer— for they 
murdered man in his ernoyments. in bis hopes and in 
Im doom. 



CENTURinS YII XVI. 117 

-One wo is past ; and behold there come two wos 
inore hereafter : a long period intervened between 
the issuing of the Arabian locusts and the loosing of 
the Euphratean horsemen." Rev. 9: 13 — 21. 

This" prediction is most luminously displayed in 
tfic history of the Turks. In numbers immense, and 
with irresistible force, the Scythians had migrated 
westerly, until their progress was arrested on the 
borders of the Euphrates. There possessing sever.nl 
parts of the Saracenic conquests, they remained 
bound in four distinct sovereignties, through the ins- 
tnunentaHty of the European crusades. Bui when 
the rage for these more than Quixotic expeditions 
ceased, and the temporary dominion which the Latins 
obtained in Palestine was nearly extinguished ; the 
trumpet sounded, the four angels were loosed, and 
the successes of the Turks over the Eastern empire 
commenced. Two circumstances in the accomplish- 
ment of this wo ; the numerical exactitude of the pe^- 
riod allotted to their devastations ; and that unique 
characteristic, "out of their mouths issued fire and 
smoke and brimstone ;" — are singularly remarkable. 

The angels and their horsemen fi-om the river Eu- 
pln-ates were prepared for a year, and a month, and 
a day, and an hour, or 395 years and 15 days; and 
it is indubitable, that from their first victory over the 
Eastern empire until their final conquest in Poland, 
that space of time was precisely exhausted. Gur> 
powder and artillery had not long previous to the 
attack upon Constantinople been introduced ; and 
the most tremendous engines of destruction ever 
known to have been used, vomited death from their 
mouths, during the siege, in w^hich was " killed the 
third part of men." 

Their numbers almost surpass credibility, and' 
they were cavalry: enveloped in scarlet, blue and 
yellow, they appeared as covered with fire, jacintli 
and brimstone; and their horses were peculiarly strong 
and fierce. Their fire and brimstone destroyed the 
bpdies , and their venomous stings, the souls of merj. 



118 ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. LECTURE YII. 

Ferocity was their distinctive character; for similar 
to the scorpion-locusts, these serpent horsemen were 
armed with worldly ambition and Mohammedan fan- 
aticism ; and the banishment of the Gospel with the 
substitution of the Koran, universally accompanied 
the successes both of the Saracens and the Turks. 

The close of the vision depicts the Latin church 
during the progress of the Angels who were loosed. 
Many countries in Europe were not affected by the 
Saracenic Locusts or the Euphratean horsemen ; but 
they persisted in the worship of saints and images, 
in their persecutions, inquisitions and murders, in 
their detestable licentiousness, the pretended celiba- 
cy of the clergy, monks and nuns, and in their fraud- 
ulent exactions, by which the nations were impover- 
ished. 

The victories of Mohammedanism and of the Ro- 
man idolatry coincide ; yet the tremendous miseries 
produced by the former, and, the glorious Reform 
which the superstitions of the latter finally engender- 
-ed, effected but a diminutive transformation. Hence^ 
they will feel the horrors of the third most awfnl wo. 

Prediction is now narrative ; for that which John 
prospectively sav/ has occurred. "The second wo. 
is past." 

Nothing can be more evident than that this prophe- 
tic delineation refers to the desolation of the Eastern 
part of the Roman Empire; and it is a wondrous con- 
firmation of our faith in the divinity of the Christian 
system, that the events should so accurately have 
coalesed with the prediction. 

The progress of this curse over the earth was 
equally rapid, extensive and direful. From the 
Mohammedan era, the Hegira in 622, must probably 
be dated the commencement of the 1260 years in ref- 
erence to the Eastern Church; hence the total extir- 
pation of this system will probably have occurred 
prior to the end of this century. 

The following brief viev/ of the chief doctrines and 
practices of this delusion cannot be irrelevant. 



CLNTtRiliS VII XVI. 119 

The Molicunmedans build all their faith upon one 
position — '•• there is no God but one, and Mohammed 
is the Apostle of God." All their articles of belief are 
comprized in the unity of God, theexistence of An- 
gels, the absolute immutabihty of the most minutely 
applicabiC predestination, the revelation of the divine 
will to Moses, David, Jesus and Mohammed ; but 
the Jewish and Christian Scriptures they reject as 
totally corrupted, and maintain the Koran to be the 
sole standard of truth; they also admit a general 
vesnrreciion and future judgment. 

The Mohammedan description of hell is perfectly 
ludicrous, and yet extremely appalling to the senses; 
Avhile the exhibition of heaven in the Koran is most 
offensively indecent and voluptuous. 

This is their faith, what is their practice ? — It coia- 
sists in live daily stated prayers : before sunrise — 
after mid-day — before sunset — during the twilight — 
after night ; with these are conjoined a variety of 
ceremonial washings and purifications. 

Legal and voluntary alms — fasting; and above all 
the pilgrimage to Mecca ; w ithout which, this Ara- 
Vmn Impostor declares, even one of his own disci- 
ples might as well be a Jew or a Christian ! 

Hence, we may cease to feel any surprise, that 
Apollyon should have so swiftly and extensively in- 
gulphed so many myriads within his vortex. 

By the force of arms and the splendour of victory, 
the nations were obliged or intimidated to submit to 
the Caliphs. The cruel dissensions among the Nes- 
torians, the Greeks, and the other sects were accom- 
panied with such abhorrent outrages, that the very 
name of Christianity became odious. At this period 
also, all the Eastern countries, and even the major 
part of the Roman empire were overwhelmed in the 
most profound ignorance, and of course were easihr 
deluded by an artful and bold Teacher, decorated 
with the garb of an irresistible Conqueror. But the 
grand reason, was its complete and cunning adapta- 
ti^p t© the depravity ©f the human heart. He seleet* 



129 ECeLESIASTieAL HlSTeKV. LECTURE Vli. 

ed some of the fundamental truths which both Jews 
and Christians believed— he required of his disci plea 
but few religious duties, neither diihcuit to be per- 
formed nor involving any restraint upon their corrupt 
passions ; and thus by sanctifying their pre-conceived 
opinions, by admitting all their usual customs, and 
by indulging all the vices to which they were natu- 
rally addicted, he successfully triumphed over the 
illumination and holiness of Christianity. 

The delusions of the Arabian Impostor' still com- 
prehend within their sway, all the Eastern Roman 
empire, with the partial exception of the scattered 
Greek Church, Arabia, Persia, a considerable part 
of India, China, Tartary, Egypt and the v/hole north- 
ern part of x4frica, except where the nominal Chris- 
tians of Abyssinia yet perpetuate some remembrance 
of the ancient faith and glories of Redemption by the 
Lamb who was slain. 

But the demolition of this apostacy seems to be 
predicted in Revelation 16: 12; and as this vial of 
the wTath of God is immediately anterior to the ex- 
tinction of the Papal superstition; it furnishes a 
strong argument, that as they w^ere not very distantly 
separated in their original establishment, so the de- 
struction of the former will be ioliowed at no louz 
interval by the other's extermination. 

The history of the Church in those countries where 
the " Angel of the bottomless pit," Abaddon or Apol- 
lyon has during so many centuries been permitted te 
tyrannize, must now be examined; and the narrative 
which demands our attention, may be lucidly and 
summarily comprehended in four words, svpersii- 
tion, ignorance^ discord ^vA depravity . But to illustrate 
the progress and consummation of this odious and 
wrathful pestilence, it is necessary distinctly to sep- 
arate the review of the Greek and Latin churches. 

During the period which elapsed from the estab- 
lishment of Mohammedanism in the seventh century, 
until the capture of Constantinople by the Turks in 
1453, the Christia«s were nominal poBgessors ©f the 



CKNT'JIliiLS Yil XVI. 121 

^iiiclenl aulhoriiy which the successors of Constantine 
enjoyed and bequeathed; but from the period when 
the Bishop of Rome was elevated to the dignity of 
supreme PoniiiT, In the west, the power of the Em- 
peror Avas little recognized, and less obeyed. The 
progress towards idolatrous institutions and mental 
darkness was uniform; and the increase of these evils 
was accelerated by the contentions that successively 
arose among the adherents of the two rival hierar- 
chies, Rome and Constantinople. 

Notwithstanding these formidable barriers to the 
extension of -Hhe truth as it is in Jesus;^' during seve- 
ral centuries, diversiiied attempts were made by the 
Nestorians especially, which were partially success- 
ful, to amplily the knowledge of the Christian reli- 
gion. • 

fn all the countries generally included m the ap- 
pellation, Independent Tartary; that is the northern 
boundaries of Syria, Persia, India, and even to Chi- 
na ; the influence of that disfigured and mutilated 
Christianity which was then preached, was acknow- 
ledged and perceptible ; and no doubt can be admit- 
ted respecting the iMit; that myriads of persons, 
professing, and v/itii all their imperfections, many 
of them sincerely believing and experiencing the 
power of Redeeniing grace, then existed in those 
realms, which now appear ingolphed in the tangible 
darkness produced hy the Arabian Apollyon's scor- 
pion-stings. 

During the tv^^elfih century a remarkable occur- 
rence highly beneiited the cause of the Gospel. A 
Nestorian Priest, historically denominated Prester 
John, conquered a large kingdom in the eastern re- 
gions of Asia, and established the predominance of 
evangelical principles ; but the authority of them was 
of short duration only ; for during the reign of his suc- 
cessor, Genghiskan the Tartar demolished the king- 
dom and the sway of the cross ; and wherever his 
victories extended, a diminution of the disciples im- 
mediatelv succeeded, Tlie universal subversion of 

Q 



122 ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. LECTURE \U, 

the Nestoriaii cliurches ^yas consummated by Tamer- 
lane in the fourteenth centurv ; and where the light 
of life in some degree irradiated the minds of men, 
now the reveries of Mohammed or the abominations 
of Paganism possess an midisputed, and almost an 
unlimited control. 

The general condition of those who still adhered 
to ''the glorious Gospel of the ever Blessed God," 
was at no period of these eight centuries more than 
tolerable ; and often were they involved in very ap- 
palling miseries. 

Immediately after the martial successes of Moham- 
med, and the earliest Caliphs had yielded them 
peaceable possession of the countries bordering upon 
Arabia; their astonishing intrepidity and infuriated 
fanaticism which had been previously engrossed in 
extending their military conquests, not having any 
external object for their continual ebullition, began 
to exhibit their malignity, in the oppressions of the 
Christians still resident among the nations whom they 
had vanquished and subdued. In their primary exer- 
cise of government they had been most laudably mo- 
derate and indulgent; but their lenient dominion was 
gradually transformed into vexatious severity: the 
Nazarenes were oppressed with tributes so heavy, 
that they were almost equivalent to a general confis- 
cation of their property, and their rights as freemen 
were exchanged for the degradation of galling vassal- 
agje. This wretchedness was augmented through e- 
very succeeding generation. During the eighth centu- 
ry, the Saracens and the Turks, although conflicting 
between themselves, were equally opponents and des- 
troyers of the Redeemers terrestrial kingdom. 

This unnatural combination could not long subsist, 
an Antichristian tyranny, and a Christian people : 
hence, in the revolution of another century, that they 
might live in this world in peace, vast numbers of 
those who professed Christianity, conformed to the a- 
postacy of their despots; and they, whose evangelical 
magnanimity resisted all the deceptions of their 



CErsTURIES VH XVI. 123 

tempters, were so constantly and bitterly persecuted 
and debased, that nothing of Christianity remained, 
but the denomination, and a few insipid ceremonial 
institutions. 

From this period, until the capture of ConstaiTlino- 
ple by the Turks, the history of the Christian disciples 
combines only an accumulation of their tortures. The 
severity of the Mohammedan victors increased in 
proportion to their triumphs in war; until their con- 
tinual exactions of the wealth of the conquered ; their 
demolition of the houses of prayer, their obstructions 
to the influence of Gospel intelligence, and their 
ceaseless murders of all the men of wisdom, fortitude, 
and exemplary piety, having bereft the remnmt of the 
church of its terrestrial pillars enveloped, almost all 
that was called christian, in one mingled mass of 
ignorance, incivilization and ruin ; in which devasta- 
tion they still continue overwhelmed. 

But it is requisite to delineate more graphically 
their prominent features. 

/. Tiieir Superstitions. 

No proposition is more self-evident, than that the 
illumination of gospel truth, and the purity of religious 
worship are inseparable. Of the absurdity, equally 
with the extent and aggravation of the superstitious 
rites, which had been introduced into the church, pri- 
or to the seventh century, and during its revolu- 
tion, the following extract from the life of Eligius a ve- 
ry famous Popish saint, furnishes ample evidence. It 
may not however be unnecessary to remark, that it 
was tlie general character of those Bishops of this 
period, who desired popularity or wealth, most pom- 
pously to promulge that they v^'ere supernaturally in- 
spired to discover the relics of the martyrs. Such 
was Eligius ; and the state of piety among those Chris- 
tians we can therefore correctly estimate. The old 
writer of his life Dacherius thus declares his eulogy: 
»' To this most holy man, God also granted among oth- 
er miracles of his virtues, that, through his researches 
ihe bodies of the martyrs, which during so many ages 



124 ECCLESIASTICAL KISTORY. LECTURE VII. 

had been concealed ; by his ardour of faith, should 
be produced and displayed.'' To dislodge the bones 
of the dead from their dormitories, seems thus to have 
been the most digniiied and the noblest employment 
of a christian minister ; and to Vvorship them when 
inclosed in gold and silver caskets, was equally the 
proudest boast and the highest devotion of the avow- 
ed disciples of the Son of God. 

An immense traffic was carried on in old bones, 
skulls, teeth and nails ; and for the celebration of the 
honors due to their suppositious original owners,par- 
ticalar days, festivals, forms and ceremonies v* ere ap- 
pointed, so that each object might retain its peculiar 
and appropriate ritual. 1. 

This detestable degradation of the human mind, 
and this abhorrent perversion of all Christian institu- 
tions, progressively augmented until it swallowed up 
the church, in the vortex of pompous idolatry. Gen- 
uine religion, learning and devotion having all nearly 
expired, an ostentatious ceremonial was substituted; 
and to invent a fresh ceremony ; to change the musics 
to superadd a new mode of venei-ating the pictures, 
images, statues, or relics of the saints; to discover a 
novel exhibition ofmagnilicent frippery, in embellish* 
ingthe robes of the saints, or the garments of the sa- 
cerdotal order; and to direct the postures, looks and 
movements of those v»4io conducted their public wor- 
ship, w^ere considered the highest attainments of hu- 
man ambition, and the only guide to terrestrial im- 
mortality. 

Hence the essence of pure and undeiiled religion 
Y/as lost; exterior splendor usurped the place of spi- 
ritual mindedness; the indulgence of an unbridled 
imagination, and the captivation of the bewildered 
senses, constituted the sole object of all the religious 
observances; and thus Christianity was totally ob- 
scured in its authority, principles, spirituality, advan- 
tages and enjoyments. 

1. Appciidix vni. 



CENTURIES \ll WL 125 

//. Their Jgnorwicc. 

To this period may be refeiTcd liie diminution oi' 
thos'.^ etlbrts to cultivate the various sciences which e- 
venuinllj transiormed the Christian world into lands 
silting ^* in darkr.ess, and the shadow of death." The 
doctrines of the gospel were enshrouded by clouds 
of the most profound and impervious ignorance; in- 
stead of that spiritual worship which the truth re- 
quires, the teachers of that age, '-the blind leading the 
bii'^d,'' substituted the imploration to saints, and tht 
adoration of their images ; the atonement of Christ 
was banisned for the expiations of a future purgatory; 
the fundamental article, justification by faith^ was ex- 
cluded ; and in its stead w^as proclaimed the efficacy 
of vain cereirionies to attain salvation; and the neces- 
sary inthiciices of the Spirit of all grace, to begin and 
perpetuate the life of God in the soul, were discarded 
lor the belief, that the vilest relics of corruption could 
heal all corporeal maladies, and eradicate every dis- 
order of the understanding, the affections, and the 
heart. Tiius, the clearest light w as metamorphosed 
into the utmost labyrinthian obscurity. 

The fundamental doctrines of Christianity seem to 
have been nominally held by the generality of per- 
sons; but the efficacy of divine truth was impeded by 
the doctrine of the merits and intercession of the 
saints, and the growing attachment to the ceaseless and 
augmenting ceremonial of the puerile pomp and silly 
splendour which attended (he image worship substi- 
tuted for the magnificence of Bacchanalian Pantheis- 
tic idolatry, finally enveloped every part of the chris- 
tian world in a total torpor; until the very highest 
dignitaries of the church were utterly unable to read 
or write ; and used to append the cross to public re- 
cords, to verify their signature and approbation : 
which w as the origin of the modern marks to certify 
acts, when the parties cannot personally subscribe 
their own appellations. 

///. Their Discord. 

Controversies respecting the procession of the Ho- 



126 ^ ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. LECTURE VII. 

ij Ghost — predestination and grace — the manner in 
which Christ was born of the virgin, and other minor 
points, partially disturbed the stagnation of the church 
during this period. But three other topics were sourc- 
es of permanent contention, two of which finally sev- 
ered the nominal Christians into Greeks and Latins. 

The election ofPhotius as Bishop oi Constantino- 
ple, involved the adherents of the tv» o Patriarchs in 
general confusion. A catalogue of charges combin- 
ing doctrinal and practical corruption v/as promuig- 
ed against the Romans, and only tended to prolong 
and strengthen the distraction. 

But the contest which arose concerning the man- 
ner in which the body and blood of Christ are present 
in the Eucharist is especially distinguishable for its 
interest and consequences. A variety of opinions 
had been held upon this topic, without any person's 
having pretended to decide the controversy authori- 
tatively and with precision. About the middle of 
the ninth century, one of that pestiferous generation 
of Vipers, the Monks, published a discussion upon 
the body and blood of Christ ; in which that son of ig- 
norance maintained, that after the consecration of 
the bread and wine by the Priest, their substantial 
qualities were removed ; their figure only remaining, 
which contained the real body and blood of Christ 
truly and locally present ; and that this figure of 
bread contained the same body of our Lord which 
w^as crucified, and was raised from the dead. 

Against this most astonishing and palpable absurdi- 
ty, one writer alone, John Scotus argued for the 
truth, by demonstrating, that the Sacramental ele- 
ments were symbols only of the invisible Redeemer. 
The positions thus affirmed were discovered how- 
ever to be of a very advantageous nature to the su- 
perstitious despotism; and amid the increasing gloom^ 
they continued to charm the votaries of idolatry, un- 
til they were eventually proclaimed as infallible ax-» 
ioms by the Papal Transubstantiation. 

But the most violent of all the contentions whicii 



CENTURIES VII. XVI. 127 

fiisorganized those who bore the name of Christian, 
M as the subject ofimage-worship. The Roman Pope 
having by the most netarious means grasped conside- 
rable temporal authority, resolved to defend his 
deteriorations of the Gospel, the profitable trade 
of shrine-making, and the devotions to the dead and 
their statues, by the pov>er which he had usurped 
and possessed. Against this corruption ; in 727, Leo 
the Greek Emperor, openly protested. In the porch 
of his palace at Constantinople, had been erected an 
image of Jesus on the cross. As it had been an in- 
centive to idolatry, Leo directed that it should be 
removed ; the person employed to destroy it was 
murdered by the devotees of the unhallowed simili- 
tude, and they who were punished for the slaughter 
of the officer, are to this day honoured by the Greeks 
as Martyrs ! This event produced a rupture be- 
tween the Emperor and the Pope. Leo refused all 
communion with Gregory ; and the latter excommu- 
nicated all the contemners of Images. 

In this state of discord, during fifty years, remained 
all the countries where Christianity nominally gov- 
erned. It was a vigorous conflict between the de- 
vout adherents of the worship of one God, and the 
blind partizans of an open acknowledgement and ho- 
nour of Satan. One of the councils thus decided — 
"Our Saviour hath delivered us from idolatry, and 
hath taught us to adore him in spirit and in truth. 
But the Devil hath insensibly brought back idolatry 
under the appearance of Christianity, persuading men 
to worship the creature, and to take for God a stone 
or block to which they give the name of Jesus Christ." 
Nevertheless, another council authorized this worship 
of the work of men's hands, and notwithstanding all 
the imperial authority both of the Greek and Ger- 
man Sovereigns, so influential was the prevalence of 
superstitition, so commanding the dignity and arro- 
gance, and so impressive the pretensions to ecclesi- 
astical superiority and veneration in the Pope, that 
although another very numerous council expressed 



128 ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. LECTUTE VI7. 

their abhorrence of this derogation of the divine su- 
premacy, it extended its course ; until every species 
of this adoration of inferiors triumphed over all oppo- 
sition, and became commensurate with the civil 
boundaries of the Church's terrestrial domain ; and 
with the exception of those countries purified by the 
unspeakably august Reformation, the lapse of a thou- 
sand years has neither changed its character, nor di- 
minished its folly and corruption. 

From these doctrinal, devotional, and practical 
disputations combined, to which may be added, the 
boundless ambition of the Roman Pontiff, w ith the 
impetuous resistance of the Patriarch of Constantin- 
opie, may be derived the schism between the eastern 
and w^estern portions of the church. Equally immers- 
ed in darkness, alike inilammpitory in turbulence, 
unrestrained by evangelic priaciple, and pursuing 
nothing but their individual aggrandizement; it is not 
surprising that all attempts to harmonize such repul- 
sive materials as these ambitious conflicting Lords of 
God's heritage, should hitherto have been in vain; 
and indeed it is probably preferable for the world, 
that the Lord m his wisdom has permitted these arro- 
gant Pontiffs and their stupid adherents to exist in se- 
paration; as by that means, some little fervor, and a 
lew^ partial gleams of light have occasionally warmed 
and illumed the moral hemisphere. 

IV, Their Depravity. 

It would be improper to delineate the odious and 
general practices of the ages which we have review- 
ed. The flood-gates of iniquity were all open, and 
every moral restraint was completely extirpated. No 
surprise can be excited by this statement, if we consi- 
der that the holy commands of Christianity were no 
longer enforced ; that the favour of God was under- 
stood to be a privilege w^iich could be obtained only 
by money paid to the Church officers ; that every 
crime, however enormous, was expiated by the Of- 
fender, if he could only offer to the Pope, or to the 
Priest who absolved him, a sum equivalent to insati- 



CENTURIES Vll — -XVI. 129 

Able capidsly ; and that the PonlifFs and Patriarchs, 
throLigli all the iiitennediato grades of Ecclesiastics, 
to the Belhinger, with the Friars, Monks and Nuns, 
a few only excepted, wallowed in all the impiety of 
Atheistic principle, and in all the corruption of bes- 
tial iice?jtiousness. The system of auricular confes- 
sion ; that is, the obligation imposed upon every in- 
dividual above puberty, fre<|uently to unfold to the 
Priest, all the secrets of tlieir hearts, and all the ac- 
tions of their lives, placed the reputation, the safety, 
the wealth, aiid the mortal existence of all persons, 
at the option of tliis coniidential adviser ; and thus 
unhesitatin.gly elevated him into that superiority, 
which precluded all opposition to his commands, and 
all non-compliance with liis wishes. Hence, he had 
no restraint for indulgence, but satiety : and the most 
artful of all the maiiojuvres connected with this most 
ungodly machination was, that it embodied around 
him a constant guard for his defence ; for they not 
only participated in his criminality, but were coerced 
to silence, by the dread of their own secrets being 
publicly divulged. From the con^itant and increas- 
ing operation of these varied evils, the world be- 
came at last one almost unmingled mass of utter 
loathsomeness; having grasped the larger proportion 
of the wealth of society, to feed their voluptuous- 
ness ; and [laving banished all tlie virtue possible, 
that conscience might not elTectually interpose, and 
induce their degraded adherents to resist their des- 
potic and vitiating authority ; the eeclesiastical or- 
ders had, by their precept, example, connivance, 
commutation of sin, and their diminution of the sanc- 
tity and supremacy of the divine law, involved all 
persons '.vitbin their ghostly rule, in a moral disorder 
apparently incurable, and in almost irremediable 
destruction. Yet it appears from the investigation 
of the history of the dark a^es. that some difference 
must have been perceptible between the Romans 
and the Greeks. The devotees of the Latin Usurper 
were more ignorant, vicious and shamQlees, than the 

T» 



130- ECCLESIASTICAL HiaTORY. LECTURE Vli. 

Eastern disciples ; yet, the record is so painfullj 

disffiistiRO' even of the best of the Monkish orders 
and of the hierarchical attendants, that the prophet- 
ical delineation, Revelation 9 : 20. 21, has been iam- 
entablj demonstrated to stand verified bj all the ac- 
curacy of historical facts ; which corroborates the 
statement, that their depravity multiplied in energy, 
extent and diversity, during the seven centuries 
which elapsed, until the third angel with a loud 
voice proclaimed, Revelation 14 : 9—11. Yes, Mar- 
tin ! thou wast commissioned to resound that dread 
denunciation, and to reverberate that wondrous 
blast ; which has silenced the groans of purgatory, 
stemmed the tide of idolatrous worship, drawn a 
visor over Monkish vitiosity, and promulged the tri- 
umphs of redemption throughout the civilized world, 

'''"Fly abroad^ thou mighty gospel^ 
Win and conquer^ never cease : 
J^Iay thy lasting wide dominion 

Multiply and still increase ; 
Sway thy sceptre,) 
Saviour^ all the world around !'^ 

This brief review of Christian Prophecy^ demonstrates 
the certainty of Divine Revelation, 

On this invulnerable argument in defence of the 
Gospel, you may safely venture your everlasting 
hope. Sophistry cannot elude its truth, denial can- 
not weaken its validity, and Atheism cannot demolish 
its force. No man bat a blind Doubter can resist 
toe energy of that conviction, which an impartial in- 
vestigation of Scriptural predictions will inevitably 
produce : and it has been evinced by testimony in- 
dabitahie, that before a being endued with never- 
ending rotional powers can reject Christianity, he 
must become the fool, Vvhom David describes, as 
saying in his heart, " there is no God." '^ What con- 
solation for us who believe ! Decorum, probity^ 
modesty and all human sensibilities must be ejected, 
previous to the renunciation of the Gospel, and we 



<;ej\turies Yii. — XVI. 131 

can no longer be men, when we cease to be Chris- 
tians." 

Daniel's predictions in tiieir original state, are 
found in a tongue which has ceased to be spoken 
by any nation during the last 2000 years ; and that 
the prophecies which regard Alexander the Grecian, 
the acts of Antiochus, the death of Messiah, the sub- 
version of Jerusalem, the desolation of Judea, and 
the consequent dispersion of the Jews by the ilo- 
mans, were all scrupulously fuliilied, is granted by 
the most subtle, acute, and detenniiied foes, who 
ever by argument opposed the revelation of God. 
But to escape from the consequences which oiia- 
Toidably result from this admission, they most pre- 
posterously contended, in defiance of testimony 
amounting to demonstration, that the book v/as a 
figurative history of past occurrences, not the ante- 
rior developement of future events. 

The Greek language, which through the conquests 
of Alexander had been extended from the Mediter- 
ranean sea to the Indian Ocean, very soon diminished 
in its purity after the removal of the seat of govern- 
ment to Constantinople ; and it has been gradually 
changing its external form, until it is very little as- 
similated to the style in which the Apostle wrote his 
visions ; consequently, that the '^ Revelation of John" 
existed before Constantine was elevated to undis- 
puted possession of the Roman Empire, is as mani- 
fest, as that the past is necessarily prior to the future, 
as the splendours of a meridian sun, or the existence 
of Jehovah. But he who rejects it, and this is the 
only mode by which modern Infidelity can justify his 
obdurate expulsion of the Gospel of Christ, must not 
impute credulity to believers: for this simulated un- 
belief involves miracles of magnitude so vast, that 
no Jew, no Theophilanthropist, no Deist, no Atheist^ 
no Devil, ever would admit them to be credible. 

The transmigration of the Jews across the Red Sea; 
the prostration of the walls of Jericho, at the blast 
of the ram's^homs; the temporary suspension of the 



132 ECCLESIAStlCAL HISTORY. LECTtJTEVII. 

solar motion at the command of Joshua ;, Elijah Vcha- 
riotoffire; the life infused into the corpse which 
touched Elisha's remains ; the existence of Jonah ia- 
closed in the whrde : the deliverance of Shadrach, 
Meshech and Abednego from the flaming liery fur- 
Dace ; the preservation of Daniel in the Lion's den; 
the fiio-ht of the fever by the distant mandate of the 
Son of God ; the cessation of tempestuous winds, and 
the cessation of the turbulent weaves at the mere 
sound of Jesus' voice; the multipiicalioii of live bar- 
ley loaves and two small fishes which felt his bene- 
diction into a super-abundance of food for several 
thousands of men, with the accompanying multitudes 
ofw^omen and children; the resuscitation of Lazarus 
from the sepulchre in which he liad during four days 
been deposited, when the Master commanded ; and 
the results of his own resurrection — the propagation 
of the Gospel bj twelve fishermen, without money, 
talents or influence ; its subsequent establishment 
throughout (he earth, not only without any species 
of human aid, but in direct opposition to all the cun- 
ning, hatred, learning, malice, power and persecu- 
tions which earth and hell confederated, could in- 
cessantly arm for its desiruction ; and its daily in- 
creasing stability in defiance of every machination 
which its enemies can contrive or execute—these 
are the most stupendous actions which we are com- 
manded to believe ; but when contrasted wdth the 
w^onders which Atheism enjoins us to credit, they 
appear but ordinary facts which admit neither of sus- 
picion nor contradiction. 

He who denies the gospel of Christ to be a revela- 
tion from heaven, believes with a myriad of impossi- 
bilities not less irrational ; that every man of all gen- 
erations has conspired to deceive him, that the 
sensibilities of his own heart are a vile delusion, 
that the wonderful phenomena of creation, the har- 
monious regularity of the annual seasons, the compli- 
cated machinery of the general system, and the un- 
rivalled minuteness of mechanism %vhich his own 



CENTURIES VII XVI. 133' 

frame discioses, all are fortuitous, that his intellectual 
powers are incurable blindness, that all things ori- 
ginated and arc sustained hy nothing, and that the 
universe commenced and will terminate in non-entit}% 
O! pity him, he is infatuated ! O pray for him, he 
is already condemned ! O strive to enlighten him, 
for the Avrath of God abide th upon him ! 

As it is self evident, that no finite mind can possi- 
bly comprehend all the past; it is equally obvious, 
that it cannot divine the future. But Daniel and 
John depicted the most important events in the his- 
tory of the moral and Christian world, many hun- 
dreds of years previous to their completion. There- 
fore, the sacred volume is irreversible truth revealed 
by the Supreme; and it is our paramount duty to 
believe its principles ar^d to obey its injunctions. 

Fathers; are you solicitous that your sons should 
bless and support you, honour their country, adorn 
the church, and die shouting. Hallelujah ? Mothers ! 
are you anxious that your daughters should emulate 
every noble example, and exhibit every feminine 
excellence on earth, previous to their admission into 
heavrnjy bliss? Enforce upon them the study of the 
scrjptures. Are you men ? O send abroad the light 
and the truth ! Are you Patriots ? Help to resound 
the Jubilee trump. Are you American-citizens f 
Remember the God of your fathers, and divulge the 
knowledge of his wonderful works. Are you Philan- 
throphists } Point your blind neighbour to the hght, 
your vicious ^acquaintance to virtue's path, and your 
endangered friend to the Ark of safety. 

Are you Christians } Look ! there they march, 
hosts innumerable to misery everlasting : in your 
hands is an impassable barrier, which has effectually 
opposed the progress of myriads who are now a- 
round the throne of God in ineffable happiness. Are 
you Christians ? you daily experience peace, through 
the operation of evangelical faith and hope ; and you 
finally anticipate, that when you walk through the 
valley of the shadow of death, you shall fear no evil. 



134 ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. LECTURE VIL 

because the Lord shall be with you, and his rod and 
staff shall comfort you : behold ! the vast majority 
of the human family, your neighbours, your friends, 
hastening to the period when the Angel of Futurity 
shall knock at the door, and Death shall deliver the 
summons, " Set thy house in order, thou shalt die 
and not live," with no vital apprehension that the 
day will ever arrive. Are you Christians ? you have 
extended your vision into eternal things ; you have 
endeavoured to realize that inexpressibly eventful 
morn, when the Archangel's trump shall revivify the 
dead to never-ending existence ; when Preachers and 
Congregations, Husbands and Wives, Parents and 
Children, Relatives and Friends, shall stand on the 
brink of the same grave, awaiting the Son of Man, 
who<f in his glory, with all his holy angels, shall then 
pronounce the interminable doom of every child of 
Adam : and you have prefigured — no ! you were 
lost in attempting to delineate the very faintest view 
of that felicity which the righteous shall enjoy in 
" the kingdom prepared for them from the foundation 
of the world." 

This is your " light to life— the glorious gospel of 
the ever blessed God." 



The Apocalyptical prophecies respecting the Latin Church. 



The history of the Roman Church includes during 
several centuries, almost all the records of nations ; 
at least, all the most interesting and prominent fea- 
tures and actions of the human famil}^ In all their 
grand distinctive qualities, the Latin and Greek 
(churches have ever remained identical : their idol- 
atry and superstition, ignorance, servility to their 
Hierarchs, and their monastic institutions, notwith- 
standing the Latins were the most debased and cor- 
I'upt, proclaim them though widely separated through 
extraneous circumstances, twin children of the same 
" Man of Sin." But to the Latin Church is devoted 
nearly the whole of the divine predictions recorded 
in the Apocalypse : hence a more enlarged examina- 
tion of her annals is requisite ; and the connection 
between Papal institutions and even all our modern 
customs and observances, renders the scrutiny equal- 
ly indispensable and instructive. Preparatory how- 
ever, to a systematic illustration of the primary char- 
acteristics of that " son of perdition, who opposeth 
•and exalteth himself above all that is called God, or 
that is worshipped ; so that he as God sitteth in the 
lempie of God, shewing himself that he is God ;" a 
brief recapitulation both of the successive events, 
and of the prophecies, may not be superfluous or 
unnecessary. 

A review of God's dealings with mankind, in his 
providential government of the world, when conduct- 
ed by the light of the sacred records, and in a hum- 
ble and devotional spirit, cannot fail to insruct the 
mind and meliorate the heart : but as the various ge- 
nerations of the human family are indissolubiy conca- 
tenated in their nature, duties and destiny, it is equal- 
ly necessary to scrutinize the page of prophecy, as 



136 ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. LECTURE A UK. 

the volume of history. To the perfonuclnce of this 
duly, the "Prince of the Kings of the earth'' has an- 
nexed his benediction, at the commeDcement of the 
Apocalypse, which was revealed expressly to dem- 
onstrate the certainty of the Divine Oracles, by pre- 
figuring the annals of the Church, arid to proclaim 
the glorious millennial era, which at the appointed 
time shall felicitate the sons of x4dam. '^ Blessed is 
he that readeth and they who hear the words of this 
prophecy, and keep those things which are wrilleri 
therein." 

We have already investigated some of the most im- 
pressive scenes during the lapse of those centuries, 
when the Christian community nominally constituted 
but one body ; and we have realized that by the tri- 
umphs of Constantine, the Gospel became the au- 
thoritatively established religion in every part of the 
Roman empire. 

At this era, the doctrines of the cross were gener- 
ally uncorrupted and the church comparatively pure. 
But when persecution ceased, the spirituality of 
the Christian was lost in a worldly temper; the fer- 
vour of devotion evaporated in e7iterD.il forms, and a 
variety of superstitions was speedily propagated. 
Veneration for departed saints, the worship of ima- 
ges and relics, and the celibacy of Priests, deplora- 
bly eclipsed the lustre, and infected the very essence 
of" pure and undefiled religion." 

The ministers of the church, who, previous to Con- 
stantine's succession to unlimited power, with some 
exceptions, had gradually been losing their parity 
of rank and influence, were now placed at vast dis- 
tances. The Bishops of Rome and Constaninople 
opposed each others pretensions to the highest digni- 
ty with the most infernal pertinacity ; while the infe- 
rior clergy ranged themselves under either banner ; 
and thus originated the controversy whicii eventually 
divided the professing Christians into the Latin and 
Greek churches : and by the declining power and 
growing indolence of the Emperors, these two Bishops 



.CENTURIES VII tVl, 137 

attained unbounded control. These abuses gradual- 
ly Increased i;i [[leii* number and potencj, throughout 
the whole of the fourili, htth and sixth centuries, un- 
til thesimpheitj of religious worship was irretrieva- 
bly banished, the purity of divine truth was contain- 
niinaled wilfi a mixture of (h'vilish inventions, whic'i 
auguicnted in proportion to their continuance ; and 
the human aiind was enchained in that consummate 
vassalage, from wliich it has never yet recovered. 

The comiDeacement of the seventh century beheld 
the evolution of the Mohammedan imposture, and 
the establishment ofth- Piioal supremacy. Of the 
Romish church during the d?rk ages;, the fojlowing 
are striking characteristics. The interminable moj- 
lipiicatioi) of tlio most preposterous rites and cere- 
monies ; the accession of teiiiporal power to t.he 
Pope's spiritual jurisdiction ; the chivalric derange- 
ment wdiicli depopulated Europe, that the Innd of 
Canaan might be rescued from tiie Mohamm.edaBS, 
but which directly produced the fuliilment of pro- 
phecy respecting the Turks; the increase of the or- 
ders devoted to celibacy, by which the nations were 
prodigiously vveakciied and vice inconceivably ad- 
vanced ; the absurdities of transubstantiation. which 
egregiously consolidated ihe power of the Pope ; the 
practice of selling iiididgences, and pardon for eve- 
ry sin, past, present or future, provided money suffi- 
cient was paid tor absolution; by which the people 
were unspeakably robbed, and the chiirch-oiiicers 
proportionably aggrandized ; the exaltation of the 
"man of sin" to the uncontrolled government of the 
universe, by disposing of temp»orni authorities, by 
dispensing with tiie obligations of the oath, by trans- 
forming the nature of morality, by substituting the 
most aggravated crimes for the most august virtues, 
and by pretending to jibolish the everlasting punish- 
went which God has denounced against the impeni- 
tent perpetrators of iniquity; and the incessantly 
malignant persecutions ; for Rome Papal has murder- 
ed indefinite] V more Christians than the Pagan per- 



13S ECCLESlASTiCAL HISTORY. LECTURE Vlil. 

secuiors, especially by that vilest of all abominations 
the Inquisition, \vhich through a long succession of 
ages destrojed myriacls of those witnesses, who in 
sackcloth continued to prophecy on behalf of their 
crucified Lord. 

When the nations ol Europe appeared to be over- 
whelmed in darkness irremediable, several most im- 
probable events combined their intlucnce to dispel 
the gloom which had so long enveloped them. Those 
crusaders vf ho returned from the Asiatic military ex- 
peditions imbibed a considerable degree of knowledge 
during their absence ; for in Greece, through which 
the barbarian Fanatics passed, the arts and sciences, 
with a measure of lierary information extensively 
superior to that which was possessed by the Monkish 
orders within the coniines of the Latin church, still 
subsisted ; and from the taste which they acquired, 
a vast flood of light speedily issuing from the Italian 
Poets and Artists, introduced the revival of literature: 
the overthrow of the Constantioopolitan empire ban- 
ished prodigious numbers of the Greek Christians, 
and scattered them throughout the various countries 
of Europe : the invention of printing multiplied books, 
which before had been confined to the monasteries ; 
and thus rendered every species of knowledge easy 
of acquisition : the discovery of the Portuguese and 
the adventurous spirit of Columbus, which unfolded 
to astonished Europe a new world, gave a spring to 
human exertions, and infused a spirit of indepen- 
dence among all descriptions of characters; and the 
supine incaution, the boundless extravagance, the 
daring licentiousness, and the audacious extortions 
of the Popes and their dependant ecclesiastics con- 
siderably emancipated many of the nations from their 
disgraceful arid tremendous thraldom. 

At length by the goodness of Providence, Martin 
Luther w as elevated to imperishable fame. His vir- 
tues, genius, learning, boldness, inflexibility and per- 
severance, by the assistance of Heaven, surmounted 
and demolished the intrencbments which inclosed 



ce:; t u r i i: s v h — a v r. 



139 



ali the GinbiKled hosts of the Papacy, and establisii- 
cd the magnificent Reformation upon a basis hither- 
to immovable. His co-adjulors who survived him, 
<mtargcd the scene of l^is labours, and Zuinglius, Cal- 
vin, Cranmer, Knox, and the Puritans, resuscitated 
the Gospel from the grave of tradition, divine ''wor- 
i^hip in spirit and in truth" from the sepulchre of cer- 
emonial observances, the Christian character from 
the death-like oblivion in which it had been so long 
incarcerated, and Messiah's church from the degra- 
dation and torpor in which during several centuries 
it had been entombed. Since tiiat period 300 years 
have nearly elapsed. Though dispossessed of some of 
its most terrific features ; yet the character of that 
bloody bigot Mary, the savage bfjrbarity of the Gui- 
ses, the unrelenting and execrably inhuman temper 
of Charles IX, the martyrdoms occasioned by the 
Duke of Alva, the deluges of Protestant blood which 
have overflowed Spain, PortugaL Italy and France, 
the horrors com^manded by Louis XIV, with other 
memorable instances in modern history, all demons- 
trate that the spirit of Popery is the same in every 
age, and that when the destined period shall arrive, 
similar desol'Uions will be experienced throughout 
the ten Kingcloms, by the witnesses who shall ^' die 
in the Lord.'' 

" There appeared a great w^onder in heaven^ a 
Woman clothed with the sun, the moon under her 
feet, and upon her head a crown of twelve stars ;''^ 
she was the Christian church, shining in the splen- 
dour of the Sun of Righteousness, superior to the 
Mosaic dispensation, transported above sublunary 
enjoyments, and decorated with Apostolic doctrines. 
During the period of her travail from the day of Pen- 
tecost until the demolition by Constantine, " a great 
red dragon with seven, heads and ten horns and seven 
crowns upon his heads, who drew the tliird part of 
the stars of heaven and cast them unto the earth," 
stood ready to devour the woman^s child, avowed 
and consistent believers. That the seven crowrm 



140 ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. LECTURE Vlll. 

were upon his lieads, and not ten crowns upon his 
horns, evidences, that the Roman imperial govern- 
ment, not ihe kings of the European nations, was in- 
tended ; and denotes the sitaation of the church un- 
der Pagan Rome. But previous to the deliverance 
of the Christians from persecution bj victorious 
Constantino, the war of Pvlichael and the Dragon in- 
terposed. This signifies the vehement exertions 
which the Pagans made against the estabhshment 
of Christianity. The Devil after a contest of nearly 
300 years wa,s finally overlhrov/u; for the blood of 
Christ and the doctrines of the cross, by the testimo- 
ny of them, "who loved not their own lives unto tiie 
death," vanquished every hellish machination, and 
the heavens rejoiced. 

When the Eh'agon was cast unto Ihe earth, he per- 
secuted the woman, the church ; and this designates 
the continual attempts which were formed and execu- 
ted, after the age of Constantin.e, to subvert the Gos- 
pel and to restore the aiicient irreligion. During 
.these occurrences, the woman received wings, by 
which at the appointed time, she might ^j into the 
v^'ilderness during the 1260 years. The serpent thea 
endeavoured to destroy her by a flood of water, the 
irruptions of the Northern Barbarians; which the 
surviving Pagans stedfostly and strenuously encou* 
raged, hoping that Messiairs religion would perish 
in the commotions. Nev-^n-theless, " ihe earth helped 
the woman and swallowed up the tiood ;'' for the va- 
rious nations which desolated the Roman empire 
became nominal Christians. Thus discomfited, the 
Dra«-on in his wrath w^ent to "make war with the 
remnant of her seed," those vvdio submitted not to 
the absurdities, superstitions, and pollutions of Po- 
pery, and " who keep the commandments of God, an4" 
the testimony of Jesus Christ." 

The beast with seven heads and ten horns, now 
appears with crowns on his horns, and this alteration 
from the seven crowns on his heads to the ten crowns 
on his horns, df^clares the change which resulted 
from the extirpation of the imperial autherity. 



CENTURIES Vll. XVI. l4! 

The ten. Iioi'ds arc all the present kingdoiDS ofEu- 
L'ope; Russia, Scanclivini?., and Greece only except- 
ed : v.nd frorri their origin to the present day, this part 
of the Roman eiiipire notwithstanding numberless tu- 
mults, vicissitudes and revolutions, has generally re- 
mained when in a settled condition, in ten distinct 
independent sovereignties; which decidedly inti- 
mates, that whatever modifications or external cha- 
racteristics they may yet exhibit, they shall continue 
in number, ten, and are the Horns which shall fall 
with the Beast. 

This beast was a leopard for fierceness, a bear in 
cruelty, and as a lion terrific. The sixth head w^as 
wounded in the overthrow of the Imperial power; 
but revived in Charlemagne, who established the 
Holy Roman empire ; and by this association of the 
secular authority with the Papal spiritual supremacy, 
the nations were all reduced to submission and wor- 
shipped the beast, supposing his powder irresistible. 
Daniel and John agree , that he should speak great 
things; he claimed to be God ofGods, and God upon 
earth, and the duration of his authority is fixed for 
1 260 years. The Papal Church has blasphemed God ; 
his name, his tabernacle; by substituting image wor- 
ship in the house of prayer and by murdering his 
saints, as heretics ; and "them that dwell in heaven," 
hy the imputation of the most ridiculous actions, and 
by sacrilegious devotion. He was to make war with 
the saints and to overcome them; all computation 
fails to ascertain the numbers of those, who for deny- 
ing the Papal dominion and doctrines, have been 
mercilessly tortured by this savage unrelenting Beast; 
and his power extended over all countries, tongues 
and nations, and " all those whose names are not 
written in the book of life of the Lamb slain from the 
foundation of the world, worhsip him." 

Before this horn, three of the ten horns were t© 
fall ; and accordingly, previous to the elevation of 
the Pope to temporal authority, through the sanction 
which the HgIi/ Father gave to the usurpations of the 



-14^ ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. LECTCRE Vllt. 

sanguinary Phocas ; he became master of the Gothic 
kingdom which had been primarily established in 
Rome and its vicinity. 

Another beast arose, vvhich had ''- two horns, like a 
lamb, but speaking as a diagon.*' This is the two 
bodies of ecclesiastics who in all generations have 
been the principal support of the Pope's devilish 
sorceries : for they have exercised the consummate 
power of the first Beast, spread themselves into eve- 
ry country, subjected by their arts and menaces all 
people, and forced them to adore the " son of perdi- 
tion." DanieFs little horn and this two horned beast 
are similarly described. " He doth great wonders ;" 
the pretended miracles of the Apostates : " he mak- 
elh fire come down from heaven upon earth in the 
sight of men," the bulls and excommunications which 
regularly issued from the Vatican against all those 
w^ho dared to oppose the authority of '• him whose 
coming is after the working of Satan." By these 
simulated wonders, men were deceived ; and he was 
to " make an image to the first beast ;" this image 
was either the Pope, to Avhom the Cardinals gave 
life and ability to speak, who as a temporal Prince 
represents the ancient Emperors, and as the infalH- 
ble Head of the church is the great Papistical Idol; 
and in both respects is now the chief of the whole 
Anti-christian tyranny : or it may include the impious 
abominations, which their chimerical devotions so 
ostentatiously display. " Those who will not wor- 
ship the image of the beast, he was not himself to 
kill, but cause to be killed ;" the Papal Priests never 
absolutely destroyed their opponents, but delivered 
the v/itnesses to the Magistrate who w^as colleagued 
with them, and completely under their dominion, 
that they might be murdered by the secular arm. 
••• All men w ere marked in their right hand and their 
foreheads ; and no man might buy or sell, save he 
who had the mark," or his name, or the number of the 
i^ame of the beast ; they must bow to the idolatries 
and superstitions of the church of Rome, whose 



GE-iNTURlES VII. XVI. 143 

mark is the cross, the cause of the most infernal cru- 
elties and the most childish superstitions, and Avhich 
is without cessation applied by every ridiculous vo- 
tary, to iiis hand, his activity in supporting the throne 
of iniquity, and to his forehead, his subjection to this 
tyrannical compound of unholy power ; ar.d all in- 
tercourse with the enemies of the Pope and his clergy 
was stricily prohibited. The beasts name is speci- 
fied 666 : it is the name of the first beast ; of the tea 
horned beast ; of a man : it is the name with the 
mark; and of every individual in the empire. These 
properties combined meet in the word Latinus only; 
and consequently 6xes it upon that Church. 

The Apostle depicts the character of them w ho in 
all ages should oppose the Papal authority and su- 
premacy, and " follow the Lamb whithersoever he 
goeth." Three Angels then arise in succession, one 
flies in the midst of heaven with the everlasting Gos- 
pel — the Waldenses and Albigenses ; the second An- 
gel followed crying, " Babylon is fallen ;*' the Bohe- 
mians and others who after the former w^itnesses w ere 
nearly or totally slain, more plainly and boldly pro- 
claimed the wrath of God against the persecutors of 
the saints : and the third Angel thundered with in- 
creased vehemence, and with augmented w^o in his 
denunciations ; Luther, Zuinglius. Cranmer and 
Knox, with their co-adjutors and successors to the 
present period, who shall not cease to protest against 
the infernally erroneous principles and practices oi"' 
the Latin Hierarchy, until the last witness is mur- 
dered. 

Living nearer the era, and when the prophecy could 
not be so lucidly expounded, the Waldenses and Al- 
bigenses more mildly but with equal resolution, pro- 
mulged evangelical truth. When " the mystery of 
iniquity" had arrived at its acme, and the character 
of the '^man of sin" was more clearly developed, the 
language of vaticination was used with more certain- 
ty, and the opposition of the Bohemians, Huss and 
Jerome, wt^s luarked with a more decided abhorrence. 



144 ECCLESIASTICAL H1ST©RY. LECTLRE Till. 

But Luther and his descendants have been more de> 
termined in their protestations, more urgent in tlieir 
importunity, more distinct in their application of 
these predictions to the Papacy, and iiiore severe 
.in the judgments which thej have denounced. 

John evidently concludes the testimony of tlie 
Reformers; he calls them to "patience to keep the 
commandments of God and the faith of Jesus y' and 
encourages them to persevere by the assurance, that 
*• Blessed are the dead who die in the Lord.'' 

The predictions respecting the three Angels in the 
fourteenth chapter of Revelations, and that concern- 
ing the two witnesses, prophesying'^ a thousand two 
hundred and threescore days, clothed in sackclotlr' 
demand additional elucidation. But a cloud impene- 
trable overshades the precise epocha when the i2G0 
years commenced. Prophecy evinces, that the Mo- 
hammedan apostacy will close before Popery shall ex^ 
pire; though their decease w ill be in swift progression; 
and that the end of theirduritionis not immediately 
to be anticipated. Speedily after the absolute domi- 
nion of" the ManofSin,^' the witnesses began to ex- 
ist ; but the Pope's primitive antagonists were (he 
first Angel, the Waldenses; who arose not prior to 
the year 666, when the Papal supremacy v> as gene- 
rally acknowdedged; for some of the horns long re- 
sisted the power which he claimed ; but by secession 
from the Latin church, the primary w itnesses conse- 
quently opposed her errors and growing enormities. 

Ample evidence exists, that nearly at the same 
period when the beast began to reign, tlie witnesses 
in sackcloth commenced their prophesying in opposi- 
tion. 

It has already been noticed, that in the eightk 
century the Greek dissented from the Latin church ; 
atidthe principal topics which constituted the basis 
of contest between the Papal Hierarchy and the fol- 
low^ers of the Lamb, " as many as would not worship 
the image of the .Beast," must be succinctly deline- 
ated. 



< ; E y. T V K r.s \]\ — x\i. 145 

1. The worship of imager. — In the eightli century, 
the Greek Emperors most energetically opposed the 
devotions oliered before the statues, the intercession 
of the saints, and the suppositious sanctity of the 
relics; and a succession of witnesses constantly 
protested against this derogation from the divine 
majesty and honour. 

2. The snpremaaj of the Pope was another topic 
which excited severe contest: but it seems never to 
liavc been universally tolerated throughout the ten 
horns of the Beast, until Gregory, whose name Hil- 
debrand was most appropriately transformed by the 
sincere Christians into Heli-Brand, claimed, exercis- 
ed, and by every species of tyrannical violence, fi- 
nally usurped and obtained, either a voluntary or a 
tacit subjection to his illimitable authority. 

3. Trans absfantiai ion.— This most absurd of all pal- 
pable and sensible contradictions for along time re- 
ceived every variety of resistance ; but ignorance fi- 
nally triumplied: and the worship of the host, the 
canoti of the mass transformed the wafer into the 
ideritical flesh and blood of the Redeemer of man- 

4. Penance and Purgaiori/ —-These were the genuine 
oiispriiig of Superstition and Blindness. Submission 
to a Monk's prescribed mortifications, opened the 
road to invisible tortures and expiatory sufferings, of 
which Ijic Pope held the Key, and which his inferior 
Delegates were authorised to turn, that departed 
souls might be trarfsmitted to heaven. This most 
detestable and gainful of all tral^cs, in its progres- 
sive insljience impoverished the nations by draining 
their wealth, and stultified the people by covering 
them with a thick darkness, impervious, gross and 
taiigible as that of Egypt. 

5. Celibacy. — The unnatural system of immuring all 
\]\Q ilower of the human family in convents and nun- 
neries, however odious and abhofbent, w^as so essen- 
tial a part, in fact so indispensable a portion of the 
Romish hierai-Ghy, that it could not have existed with- 

■T 



146 ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. LECTURE YUI. 

out its prolongation. By the active influence of this 
anti-social abomination all the ligaments of society 
were shivered, and the whole Roman empire was di- 
vided into two classes of people; a band of adherents 
to the Papacy whose interest it was to support its 
ghostly despotism, by every artifice and exertion : 
and the stupid, debased, senseless multitudes, '^ silly 
sheep fleeced ten thousand times before ;" who were 
continually robbed under a div^ersity of pretexts 
when living, and whose property was generally gras* 
ped when dead, that these associated voluptuaries 
might in indolence riot upon the spoils of industry, 
and with impurity wallow in every species of criminal 
indulgence. 

It is not now necessary to enlarge upon these to- 
pics, as they will require a more distinct exposition, 
when the detailed narrative of the Roman hierarchy 
during the eight centuries from the year 666, until 
the Reformation shall occupy our attention. In eve- 
ry stage of this period however, opponents to the 
claims of Rome existed : they were widely scattered, 
and variously denominated : generally they were cal- 
led Waldenses, Albigenses and Leonists ; and in the 
thirteenth century they had become so numerous ; 
that to crush the Rebels against him who was seated 
'- in the temple of God, a& God," the Inquisition was 
established, armed with all the power that Jesuitical 
cunning, Dominican malevolence, interested energy,, 
infernal cruelty, Pontifical sanction and incalculable 
numbers combined could impart, and in the deve- 
Icpement and in the exercise of their uncontrolled 
siitbority exhibiting all that cold-blooded, insensible 
malignity, at the recollection of which Barbarism 
itself would be appalled, and which nothing but 
Christianity could have sustained. 

1 . What is Prophecy ? 

God alone behol^ the incidents which are encir- 
cled in the womb ofiuturity ; for he only who arrang- 
ed them for a certain end, ^ can indubitably perceive 
aM the vipissitudes and revolutions which shall agl'- 



S:Cfi^i 



it 



^-fLXTURlES VII. XVI. 147 

tate the universe. Man by the knowledge which he 
has obtained concerning the general laws of our 
globe, may foresee some physical consequences, as 
the infiUible and unvarying result of the motions 
which the Creator has communicated to matter: but 
that which depends upon uncontrolled and future 
combinations is impenetrable to finite intelligence. 

That principle is not prophecy, which anticipates 
effects proceedingfrom natural and necessary agents 
that were destined to produce them; that declares 
a regular suite of occurrences by external signs, the 
deduction of long continued experience, in which the 
same events had without mutation Been similarly 
pre-signified or which presages certain revolutio.iS in 
the affairs of men, from the universal character of the 
species, or the methodical course of the human pas- 
sions, when agitated by identical causes and exercis- 
ed in an uniform manner. 

Prophecy is the unquestionable intuition of future 
contingencies, in which neither the anterior determi- 
nation nor the preliminary disposition is discovered. 
To announce the birth of a man many ages before 
he appeared ; to declare the name by which he 
should be known: to detail the circumstances and 
consequences of his life and death; and to predict 
actions unpre-cedented and super-human; when every 
appearance opposed the consummation, is prophecy: 
and it is of divine origin, for man cannot acquire it by 
the exercises of his own mind. The Father of Spirits 
may gratuitously impart it to whom he pleases ; not 
that he raises the rational powers beyond their na- 
tural bounds ; but he communicates that which must 
in future exist, with the order to reveal it ; without 
displaying the connection or the ground of the w^on- 
ders which he had directed his servant to disclose. 
The genuine Prophet draws nothing from himself; he 
acts not ; he merely obeys the supernal inspiration, 
and retains that which is delivered to him ; that he 
may deliver it in the form which his Master command 
ded. 



148 ECCLESiASTiCAL HISTORY. LECTURE V,Ii;. 



yrcc- 



2. How mijsterious the dispensations of God in the dii 
tion of his church I 

After the review of the prominent scenes and charac- 
ters of this period we are always disposed to inquire, 
why did the Lord permit such ineffable absurdities 
(o arise? and are equally astonished w^iien we reiiect 
upon their predomiiiaDce and protracted duration. 
The fact however is undeniable, and furnishes an ir- 
refragable attestation to the humiUating truths, that 
man bj nature is ever prone and willing to depart 
from Jehovah, and that Apollyon is empliatically 
the God of thi§ world. To a dispassionate impartial 
Judge, nothing can be more irresistibly impressive, 
than the succession of events to whicli our {rittentiori 
has alreaily been directed. The whole moral world 
w^as lying in wickedness ; ?jid vv ith the exception of 
Judea, enveloped in impervious clouds of black 
darkless : to disperse the vv retched gloom, the Sun 
of Righteousness arose with healing beneath his: 
wdngs. With great joy the people saw^ the marvel- 
lous light; but a conflict arose between the disturbers 
of the creation of God and the servants of the Prince 
of Peace. Durina^ 280 vears the contest w^as conti- 
nued ; admitting of little mtermission and only to be 
decided by the complete overthrow of one of the 
Combatants, On the part of Satan every abomina- 
tion was exhibited towards bis Antagonists; the car- 
nal weapons were sharpened to thei outmost edge 
against the spiritual armour, and in the battle, myri- 
ads of ImmanuePs sheep wei:e transferred from the 
cross to the crown, amid the most excruciating tor- 
ture ; but the vision was for an appointed time, and 
although it tarried, they v^aited for it until it came. 
" The sixth seal w^as opened — tlie great earthquake 
occurred; the sun became black; the moon became 
as blood ; the stars of heaven fell: the heavens de- 
parted ; every mountain and island w ere moved :*' 
and all orders of Satan's troops " hid themselves in 
the dens and rocks of the mountains, for the great 
day of his wrath '* came. -Bnd none of them were 
• able to stand." 



CENTURIES VII. XVI. M^ 

After SO complete a demolition of the nncient idol- 
atry, the consummate exposure of its unhailovved 
jn} ^iteries and authorised corruption, and the estab- 
lishment, bj law and by insuperable force, of the sub- 
limely '' pure and undefiled religion, and the life and 
immortality brought to light by the gospel'' — com- 
bined with the triumphant evangelical iiosannas of 
that multitude which no man could number — who 
could have supposed that Christianity would have 
been metamorphosed so as to display all the abhor-^ 
rent qualities of the Bacchanalian mythology ? — yet 
the nations governed by Papal authority were scarce- 
ly more evangelized than to change the worship of a 
block of marble, sculptured and denominated Jupiter, 
tor an image ol the Virgin Mary, or of an imaginary 
disembodied saint: to this astonishing djepartiire from 
the Gospel must be added, the incorporation of the 
most sanguinary feature impressed upon the idolatrous 
system; that philanthropy which the gospel so earnest- 
ly and continually inculcates as the grand effect and 
evidence of the converting grace effused by the ever 
blessed Spirit, was absorbed in a furious malignity, in- 
cessantly devouring ; cruel and insatiable as the 
grave. At the approach of the Papal adheLenls, alj 
that was enlightened, pure and devotional disappear- 
ed ; the substance of evangelical religion vanished, 
and in its stead, scarcely a shadowy similitude re- 
mained. The whole fabric called Popery was ibund- 
ed upon an impenetrable ignorance of the Gospel of 
Christ; audits long continued ascendency was per- 
petuated by that combination of spiritual tyrants, 
who contrived during several centuries to bind the 
world in the most degrading mental vassalage. That 
illumination only is requisite to demolish the Papal 
corruptions, equally with the Mohammedan apostacy^ 
is a fact verified by experience, and attested by the 
history of nations. Under the withering controul of 
that appalling and incomparable despotism, the ten 
kingdoms of the Roman empire, the ten horns of the 
^east became gradually more and more palsied^ until 



.^<-'>^»fc^^_ 



i5b 



rXCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. LECTURE VlL 



it appears, that an almost incurable lethargy pervad- 
ed their whole boundaries; at least, it is certain that 
jiothiiig could have roused them from their stupor, 
but the activity inspired by the discovery of America, 
and the excitement enkindled by the rapid propaga- 
tion of knowledge through the then novel art of print- 
ing; both of which loosened the chains of darkness 
and coercion with which the human soul had so long 
been fettered, and finally enabled the enterpris- 
ing, and the learned and the pious to " fight the good 
fight of faith ;" and by thus undermining the Papal 
fortress, to justify that anticipation which exults in 
the song of triumph over its total and irrecoverable 
destruction. In reviewing the moral degradation and 
the intellectual stupor of this desolate period in 
the annals of the human family — we are lost in 
astonishment at the mysteriousness of the Divine 
government, the v/ondrous reactionof human aflairs, 
the exact retribution which the Supreme Governor 
often awards to mankind, even in this world, a!)d 
the almost insuparable tendency that exists in the 
hearts of men to depart from the living God. 

The gradual introduction of the Papal supersti- 
tions, and the sudden establishment of the delusions 
originally promulged at Mecca, verify the Prophetic 
truth, " the Lord is with you if you be with him, but 
if you forsake him, he will forsake you :" and the 
infallible*declaration of the Judge of all the earth is 
exemplified in all its humiliating force, by the annals 
of the nominal church during the three hundred years 
subsequent to Constantine's publicly authoritative 
recognition of the Gospel, as the Imperial religion. 
Spiritual devotion was generally unknow^n ; the wor- 
ship of God w^as transformed into a carnal exterior 
round of services by which the light of evangelical 
truth was obscured ; (he sanctity of the divine com- 
mandments was obliterated by a substitute which 
altogether commuted the whole moral system, in the 
|)ractice of auricular confession, and priestly absolu- 
tion ; and as the progress of corruption is continually 



(JEMURIES VII XVI. 151 

gic'celeniling; it was soon developed in all its enor- 
mity, evincing that ''men love darkness rather thati 
light because their deeds are evil." 

It is not surprize merely which affects us in con- 
templating these inscrutable movements of the Pro^ 
vidential system ; but also gratitude that God who 
presides over all terrestrial affairs, has so directed 
these apparently inexplicable and contradictory e- 
vents, that thf^y furnish the strongest possible cor^ 
viction to our niids of the truth which the sacred 
scriptures develope, and thus through divine influ- 
ence they may contribute most essentially to our 
spiritual edification. " He maketh the wrath of man 
to pj-aise him, and the remainder of that wrath he 
restrains." The Monks and Friars, whose Argus 
eyes explored every recess however secret, to seize 
all the copies of the sacred volume, that their con- 
tents might be unknown to the multitudes'over whon^ 
they had obtained a resistlsss sway, entombed the 
manuscripts which they collected in oblivion, within 
the walls of their Abbies. Now it is not a little re- 
markable, that this same manoeuvre under divine 
controul became the safe-guard of the scriptures. 

The copies which were obtained either by intimi- 
dation or force or fraud, were deposited in the mo* 
nasteries and the large collegiate institutions as re- 
ceptacles of safety; and as these were appropriated 
to the most sacred purposes in public estimation, 
and legalized as perfect sanctuaries, so they were 
seldom assa.iled ; and thus became treasuries in 
which might most securely be intrusted any articles 
however costly or precious. Had the ingenuity oi' 
the Monks aucl Friars equalled their malignity, and 
their aversion from the Scriptures, they would have 
irrecoverably destroyed all the copies v/hich could 
have been grasped; but they were taken in their own. 
craftiness ; and he who makes *• all things work toge- 
tlierfor good to them that love God, to the called 
according to his purpose," thus so regulated all the 
corrupt passions of men, that they who never rested 



15-2 



ECCLESIASTICAL HISTQRY. 



LECTURE Vlir. 



from the unholy employ, to obliterate the ener<^^y of 
revealed truth and to extirpate the charter of re- 
demption from its residence on earth, became in the 
days of darkness, and through the centuries of moral 
• and spiritual palpable gloom, the unassailable guard- 
ians of its imperishable truths, promises and com- 
mands. 

Another circumstance which is not less impressive 
must also be rem.embered. In declaring the Latin 
version, the only authorised text of Scripture, it be- 
came necessary for the sake of those who continued 
to use that language both in speaking and writing, 
and who consequently might comprehend the oracles 
of truth, often to exhibit the Old and New Testament, 
that sceptics might be convinced that the various er- 
rors and mummeries of popery were truly sanctioned 
by the Founder of the Church and his x'Vpostles. — 
Hence the exposure necessary even to change the 
tenor of the divine word, so that it might authorize all 
the new follies either in faith, worship or practice, 
which were continually increasing in the church, also 
tended to remind those who had never seen the Gos- 
pels, that such a book existed, and that so paramount 
w^as its authority, it w^as deemed in all cases of diiiicul- 
Xj that standard of verity alone from the decision of 
wdiich no appeal existed. He, the supreme, who does 
as he pleases in the midst of the armies of heaven, and 
among the inhabitants of the earth, often by this 
means illustrated the truth to the sincere and candid 
inquirer; and maintained the smoking flax, that it 
could not be totally extinguished. To this cause 
we owe the feeble opposition to the Papacy, which 
existed at every period from the rise of the Walden- 
ses to the more furious assaults made upon the bat- 
tlements of Antichrist by the Reformers of the six- 
teenth century. 

When we consider therefore the nature, progress, 
extent and predominance of Popery, originating in 
the corruption of ungodly Despots and Hierarchs in 
the bosom of the church=^when we reflect upon the 



CENTURIES VII. XVI. l53 

strictly accurate delineation given of all these poste- 
rior events so many hundreds of years anterior— when 
we observe the wonder-working displays of the per- 
fections of God, as unfolded in his boundlessly wise 
super-intendence of these discordant and baneful 
events — when we see a constant interference pro- 
pelling even the wickedness of man to consummate 
the dispensations of divine wisdom and mercy — and 
when we behold ail the concerns of several centuries 
only operating to verity divine revelation, to humble 
us under the review of the vast imperfection attach- 
ed to the human character, to exemplify the incalcu- 
lable value of the truth as it is in Jesus, and to ex- 
cite in us caution, w^atchfulness, and a more power- 
ful solicitude rightly to impove our inestimable pri- 
vileges, we must, lost in astonishment, subjoin with 
the Psalmist—" Lord, what is man that thou art mind- 
ful of him, or the Son of man that thou shouldst visit 
him >'' 

U 



The Papal hierarchy delineated in its prophetical charac- 
teristics — the extent of its dominion^ and the nature of 
its poiver. 



After the permanent establishment of the Arabian 
imposture, the mystery of abomination was com- 
pletely unfolded, and the 1260 years of gloom com- 
menced their revolution. However impossible it 
may be to determine with precision the exact period ; 
yet the moral aspect of the nations, the exaltation of 
the Roman Hierarchy, the inseparable combination 
of the ten civil horns of the Heathen Empire under 
one nominal Christian Judge and Legislator and ter- 
restrial Vicegerent of God, and especially the origi- 
nal prophesying of the two witnesses in sackcloth 
authorize the deduction, that the sacred mysterious 
number 666 is probably the true date of that dupli- 
cate eventful era, in retrospect so humiliating, so 
joyful in anticipation. 

The general history of the Roman Papacy, its most 
impressive features, the opponents of its authority, 
and some of its prophetical characteristics must be 
described. These topics will include the principal 
events which occurred during nearly 850 years, until 
the third Angel proclaimed with aloud voice, "they 
have no "rest day nor night, who worship the Beast 
and his image." 

The narrative which these circumstances com- 
prize will not be divided by dates or periods ; but 
each subject will be distinctly reviewed throughout 
the duration of the almost ^mcontradicted supremacy 
of him " who had two horns like a lamb, and spake 
as a dragon." 



CENTURIES VII XVI. 155 

/. The extent of his dominion. 
Of graphical prophecy, no painting can be more 
accurate than the portrait of the Papacy drawn by 
the Apostle, when in Fatmos, he "was in the Spirit, 
on the Lord's day." The Beast to which " the dra- 
gon gave his power, and his seat and his great au- 
thority," had •'• seven heads and ten horns, and upon 
his horns ten crowns:" and in the seventeenth chap- 
ter of the Apocalypse, the heads and the horns o^re 
explained. " The seven heads are seven mountains 
on w hich the woman sitteth ;" for the prophet had 
immediately before described the woman as sitting 
" upon a scarlet coloured beast, having seven heads 
and ten horns." The seven heads are also expound- 
ed as seven kings, of whom ^\e had fallen, one exist- 
ed, " and the other is not yet come ; " and the ten 
horns are ten kings who have received no kingdom 
as yet but receive power, have one mind, and shall 
give their power and strength to the beast." 

The seven mountains determine the application of 
the prediction to Rome, " the city w ith seven hills ;" 
and the seven kings imply the several forms of gov- 
ernment which successively swayed the Roman em- 
pire. " Five of these had fallen ; the kings^ consuls^ 
dictators^ decemvirs^ and military tribunes ;" the imperial 
authori(y, which was the sixth, then ruled ; and the 
seventh must intend either the Patrician form after 
the death of Augustulus, or the delegated sovereignty 
to the exarch of Ravenna, in combination with the 
Pope's temporal authority, which is that complicated 
beast " that was and is not, even he is the eighth, and 
is of the seven and goeth into perdition." The scar- 
let coloured beast must be the Roman government 
in its final attribute ; and this is the Papal hierarchy. 

The great red dragon which st^od before the wo- 
man to devour her child as soon as it was born, is 
delineated as identical with the scarlet coloured 
beast. To illustrate this point, it is extremely inter- 
esting to observe, that the deliverance of the church 
from the dragon is fixed at the ordinary period of 



156 ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. LECTURE IX. 

gestation ; and from the day of Pentecost until the 
proclamation of Constantine for the universal tolera- 
tion and. encouragement of Christianity, comprised 
exa<itly 280 years. But why is he clothed in scarlet ? 
The Roman Kings, Consuls, Generals, Emperors, 
Popes and Cardinals have continually adorned them- 
selves in purple or scarlet robes ; and that this is 
the c<3rrect explication of the prediction is evident 
from the remarkable manner in which it was adopted 
by Constantine in his letter to Eusebius ; '• directing 
him to repair and rebuild the houses for the worship 
of God." " Liberty being now restored," writes the 
Christian Conqueror, '•'• and that dragon.)''' meaning ei- 
ther Galerius who had so long endeavoured to mur- 
der him, or probably the v»hole Pagan imperial gov- 
ernment, " that dragon being removed from the ad- 
ministration of public affairs, hj the providence of 
the great God, and by my ministry ; I esteem the 
great power of God to have been made manifest to 
all." Eusebius assures us, that in express allusion 
to the divine oracles, where the evil spirit is called 
the dragon, a picture of Constantine was exalted 
over the gate of his palace, with the cross suspended 
over his head ; and under his feet^ " the great enemy 
of mankind, who persecuted the church by the means 
of impious tyrants, in the form of a dragon," pierced 
with a dart in his body, and hurled headlong into 
the Vv'atery abyss. 

At the period when Augustulus, the last of the west- 
ern Emperors was vanquished, and the Imperial 
sway over the occidental part of the Roman empire 
was destroyed— his dominions were divided into ten 
kingdoms, which comprehended within its general 
boundary the whole of Europe except the countries 
subsequently possessed by the Turks, and the prov- 
inces of Russia according to their ancient boundaries, 
and probably excluding Sweden and Norway sepa- 
rated by the Baltic. This remarkable coincidence 
in the settlement of the countries immediately sub- 
ject to the Dragon's Beast, is a unique in the history 



'<m. 



CE-NTURIES Vli. XYI. 157 

of the wdrld. ''- All these kingdoms were divided 
either by conquest or inheritance ; and as if that 
number ten had been fatal in the Roman dominions, it 
has been often particularly remarked." Eberard, a 
Papist, mentioned it about the year 1 240, in the diet of 
Ratisbon. I^uiher at the period of the Reformation. 
Newton and Whiston J 20 years since — and that which 
is yet more astonishing, after the late European earth- 
quake, which at one period seemed to have trans- 
ferred nearly the whole sovereignty of that continent 
to an individual warrior, the Kings of the ancient 
Vv^estern Empire have " returned again to the same 
condition, and at present it is divided into ten princi- 
pal states." 

If any argument were required to verify our faith 
in divine Revelation, after so perfect a consumma- 
tion of John's prophecy, it might be triumphantly 
deduced from the wondrous fact, that 700 years pre- 
vious to the publication of the Apostle's visions, Je- 
hovah had revealed the same history of the Roman 
empire to Nebuchadnezzar m the dream which Dan- 
iel interpreted ; and again about fifty years subse- 
quent, to the Prophet himself 

These predictions of the Old Testament were 
written when the Roman power was confined to a 
small district in Italy, and when it is most probable 
even the name of such a city or people had never 
crossed the Adriatic. The application of these 
Prophecies was correctly made by all the principal 
ancient expositors of the sacred volume, and Jerome 
who lived during the irruptions of the northern bar- 
barians, long prior to the complete fulfilment of the 
prophetical visions, in one succinct paragraph de- 
tailed the whole posterior history. " The feet and 
toes are partly of iron and partly of clay, which is 
most manifestly proved at this time ; and when the 
Roman empire shall be destroyed, there will be texi 
kings, who will divide it between them, and an elev- 
enth shall arise, a little king, who shall subdue three 
of the kings, and the other seven shall submit their 



158 ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. LECTURE IX. 

necks to the conqueror."" This displays very acute 
scriptural perspicacity ; because if we only change 
the style from the future for the past, we peruse the 
utmost exactitude of undeniable fact. 

The grand difficulty connected with these deline- 
ations consists in the utter impossibility to determine 
the epoch when the power of the beast commenced. 
That the 1260 years of its duration have not termi- 
nated is evinced, because the Angel '• having great 
power," has not " come down from heaven, and cried 
mightily with a strong voice, saying, Babylon the great 
is fallen, is fallen." Several eras have been designated 
as the first of the 1260 years. " Their commencement 
must be placed after the subversion of the western 
empire; but the beginning of the rise and fall of the 
anti-christian tyranny, and the completion of them," 
may probably like the Babylonish captivity, be re- 
ferred to different periods. Justinian the Emperor in 
534 declared the Pope the head of all the churches; 
and not in language only, but sent Bishops to Rome 
as his ambassadors. Gregory I. domineered most 
haughtily over all the churches of the West during 
the sixth, and the posterior Spiritual Usurper much 
more despotically in the seventh century. This pow^- 
er of the Papacy was remarkably developed in the 
success which attended their efforts to establish the 
worship of images and the invocation of saints: for 
when Gregory so blasphemously inserted the name 
of the Virgin Mary in his litanies of devotion — 
although he was opposed by all the earnestness of 
Christian sincerity ; by all the illumination of Bibli- 
cal literature; by the hitherto irresistible influence 
of primitive practice, exemplified in the ^' Holy 
Church throughout all the world ;" by the example 
of" the noble army of Martyrs;" and by the authority 
of the Christian Imperial Government ; yet " the Man 
of Sin" was victorious, and in 606, was proclaimed 
Universal Bishop. Having excommunicated the 
Greek Emperor in consequence of his opposition to 
idolatry, and having excited such civil commotions 



CENTURIES VII XVI. 159 

and intestine wars that the sovereignty of Leo was 
totally subverted in Italy — about 120 years from the 
jdmost general acknowledgement of his ecclesiastical 
reign, Gregory II. then Pope, usurped the temporal 
supremacy^ In the mean time the heterodox, for 
all who dissented from the Beast were so denounced, 
were by the laws declared infamous, incapacitated 
as witnesses, and outlaws ; the Pope's canons were 
of equal or superior authority to the legislative 
enactments . and hence it is evident, that at this pe- 
riod, the Beast had fully received from the dragon 
" his power, and his seat .?nd great authority." — 
It appears therefore a reasonable inference, that the 
year 606 is the earliest, and the Papal acquisition 
of the independent civil power, the latest date possi- 
ble which can be fixed for the entrance upon the 1260 
years. The first is too early ; because it is prior to 
the Mohammedan Hegira, and the witnesses pro- 
phesying in sackcloth ; and the latter seems to inter- 
pose too great an interval between events which 
prophecy and history both determine to have almost 
simultaneously occurred. One fact remains incon- 
testable — two of the dates, 1789 and 1815, which 
during the last century were frequently specified 
as the years when the Papal Flierarchy and abomina- 
tions should be extirpated, have revolved, and the 
Beast still exercises his odious, intolerant sway over 
the major part of his original domains ; fuhiiinating 
his anathemas against the word of God and its Pro- 
pagators from the Baltic to the Meditterranean, 
and from Thrace to Connaught ; and despatching to 
all nations with renewed vigour, i' the body guard 
of the Pope," his horde of Jesuit Janazaries, "that 
generation of vipers," to seduce and envenom the 
w^orld. 

//. The characters of his poiver. 

These must first be illustrated in the language and 

painting of prophecy. Daniel represents him in his 

seventh chapter, as a horn, the scriptural symbol 

of energy and force, '• plucking up by the roots, three 



160 ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY.. • LECTURE l%> 

of the first horns," overturning three of the ten states; 
*> he shall be diverse from the first;" his authority 
being both ecclesiastical and secular- — ^' in this horn 
were eyes like the eyes of man;" this denotes his 
cunning policy and solicitude for his own advance- 
ment— '' he had a mouth speaking great things;" the 
Pope filled all Europe with his noise, boasting of his 
supremacy, issuing his bulls, and disolving all the 
relations of society^ — '' his look was more stout than 
his fellows;" he claimed and possessed almost uni- 
versal superiority over all the ten kings—" he 
shall speak great v^ords against the Most High ;" 
the Pope established himself above all law, arrogated 
the god-like attributes of holiness and infallibility, 
and demanded and enforced obedience to his decre- 
tals, when they were absurd, destructive and bias- 
phemDiis — " he shall wear out the saints of the Most 
High;" whoever harrassed the sincere disciples of 
the Lamb with more cruelty or constancy, by massa- 
cre and tortures than the Popes and their Inquisi- 
torial agents ? — " he shall think to change times and 
laws ;" this was effected hj the indulgences for sin, 
the idolatrous festivals which he appointed, the anti- 
scriptural articles of faith and the vitiating practices 
which he sanctioned, and by claiming the indefeasi- 
ble prerogative to alter and reverse at his pleasure 
the laws of God and man- — '' they shall be given into 
his hand, until a time, and times and the dividing of 
times ;" time means a'year, therefore this is equiva- 
lent to three years and a half—" forty two months, 
a thousand two hundred and threescore days" — now 
God declared to Ezekiel, " I have appointed thee 
each day for a year ;" and Daniel's seventy weeks 
were 490 years, consequently these are 1260 years. 
The description of the Apostle Paul is not less ac- 
curate — "he opposeth and exalteth himself above all 
that is called God or that is worshipped, so that he 
as God sitteth in the temple of God, shewing himself 
that he is God." In a further delineation, he de- 
scribes the members of the Apostacy as giving heed 



(fi^ATCiuiie VII. — xvi. 161 

^*io scHi'jcing spirits and doctrines of devils, speaking 
lies iu hypocrisy, forbidding to marry, abstaining from 
meats, and having their consciences seared with a 
hoi iron.*' This is the genuine picture of tlie Papal 
systein. Tlie Popes have always destroyed, if prac- 
ticable, liiose who adhered to the word of God and 
rejected their traditions — '' he exalted himself ;" 
Emperors and Kings, have been dethroned and re- 
stored by them ; and their kingdoms have been be- 
sto'.ved as th(^ patrimony of the Beast ; the most dig- 
nified potentates of Europe themselves, have waited 
at the gates of the Pope's palace almost naked, in 
the midst of winter — they have prostrated themselves 
before him, kissed his toe and held his stirrup ; two of 
them have led his horse by the bridle in procession; 
their crowns have been kicked from their heads by 
the Pope's foot ; he has trampled upon their heads ; 
and they have even suffered their necks to be trod- 
den upon as a footstool, when he ascended his horse, 
or portable canopied throne. This scripture was 
used on those occasions- — " They shall bear thee up 
in thr^ir liands, lest thou dash thy toot against a stone. 
Thou shalt tread upon the lion and adder ; the young 
lion and the dragon shalt thou trample under feet." 
Psalm 91 : 12, 13.—" The word of God has been 
made of none eifect by his traditions ;" the Pope has 
forbidden tlie communion of bread and w^ine, mar- 
riage, the knowledge of the scriptures ; w^hile he 
enforces the violation of the first commandment, has 
erased tlie second to remove the divine barrier to 
idolatry, and sanctities murder. " He sits in tlie tem- 
ple of God, as God:'' upon the high altar at his pon- 
tifical iirauguration ; the.Lord's table is his footstool, 
and thus he receives god-like adoration— " he shew^s 
himself that he is God ;" he has blasphemously as- 
sumed the inalienable titles and attributes, with the 
incommunicable power and prerogatives of " the 
only" blessed potentate, the only wise God our Sav- 
iour, to pardon sin, v/hich the Jews declared belonged 
to God alone, and for which they impeached and 

W 



I62i ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. LECTUllE IX; 

lated the Lord of life and glory to whom it belonged ; 
and has also declared that his authority is greater 
than the word of God, and must be received on the 
penalty of '» everlasting punishment." It is almost 
sacrilege, and desecration of the houseof prayer, but 
it is necessary to recapitulate some of his titles — 
" Our Lord God the Pope ; God upon earth ; King 
®f Kings, and Lord of Lords ; Judge in the place of 
God — God has delivered to him all the kingdoms of 
this world: the power of the Pope extends to things 
celestial, terrestrial and infernal ; the Pope doth 
what he pleases, even things unlawful, and is more 
than God ; if the Pope camniands vice and forbids 
virtue, the Church is bound to believe that vice is 
good, and virtue wicked, unless she would sin against 
her own conscience; and the authority of the Church, 
that is the Pope, is more ancient and w^orthy than 
the scriptures." 

This blasphemy is the language of papal decre- 
tal 3,^ and may be discovered in the acts of councils ; 
it is evident therefore that Daniel's little horn, and 
Paul's man of sin, are identical ; and not less the An- 
tichrist of John — this interpretation was published 
1650 years ago by Justin ; and all the most enlight- 
ened Expositors who wrote prior to the extermina- 
tion of thevVestern Imperial power, corroborate his 
application of the prophecy. Tertullian, Origen, 
Lactantius, Cyril, Ambrose, Hilary, Jerome, Austin, 
Chrysostom ; and even Gregory the first, himself 
Pope at the close of the sixth century, declared that 
Me who assumed the title of Universal Bishop, was 
either Antichrist or his forerunner ; and yet, in 606, 
his almost immediate successor, Boniface, two years 
only subsequent to the death of Gregory, usurped 
that same title thus so boldly denounced by the for- 
mer Hierarch ; and the title, with all its anticliristian 
appendages, is still retained by the present Pius VII. 
the genuine lieir of all the pride, of all the hatred to 
the gospel-. ^^^^.l^-Oi^al I the cruelty which Hildebrand 
im: Alexander ever felt ar displayed. The modepn 



CENTLillES Vii. XVI. 163 

'^ Man of Sin," it is true, possesses not the opportu- 
nity to develope his real and perl'ect character ; but 
he has often asserted the undiminished plenitude of 
his ecclesiastical supremacy ; he has invariably coun- 
teracted the spread of the scriptures by his audacious 
bulls, mandates and venom, against the Bible Socie- 
ties and Revealed Truth in the vernacular language; 
he has resuscitated the dead, entombed and accursed 
Inquisition ; and he has re-organized that band of 
Scorpions, the Jesuits, to pollute and disgrace the 
nations — thus combining a mass of incalculable and 
intolerable crime against the church and the world, 
which will consign the name and the acts of this Rep- 
resentative of the Beast and the pretended legitimate 
Despots of Europe, his restorers and abettors, to 
universal and imperishable execration. 

The qualities belonging to the Apocalyptic woman, 
as described by John, have already been briefly no- 
ticed ; two of her characteristics however were not 
recited. Upon her forehead w'as a name written, 
••Mystery ;" and it is affirmed, that formerly this word 
was inscribed in letters of gold in front of the Pope's 
triple crown. '• The woman was drunken with the 
blood of the saints, and with the blood of the mar- 
tyrs of Jesus'* — Blasphemy and cruelty were predict- 
ed as her prime distinctive features ; that they were 
appropriately described will most evidently appear 
when we narrate the high claims and the sanguinary 
practices of this Antichristian Apostacy. It has been 
calculated that the Popes and their vassals have 
massacred ten times as many rejecters of the Papal 
authority, as the number of them who under the 
Heathen Emperors were martyred because they re- 
fused to bovy down to their idols ; well therefore 
might John w^onder -^ v^ith great admiration," at the 
vision of the external form and name of the Christian 
Church, encircled with an ocean of blood, effused 
from the veins of ImmanueFs disciples, and the Apos» 
lie's brethren in the faith. 

The prophetical i>kturc ef (he Beast Ii^ving thus 



./ 



164 ECCLilSlAsTiCAL HISTORY, LECTURE IX, 

been analyzed, the nature of his power will now he 
developed. It comprized Uvo principal ossumplioas. 
Infallibility w^ithout defect, and supremacy without 
controul. 

1. Hoiv ivas this hfallihiUty excmpUficd ? 
The principles advanced by the claim of infallibil- 
ity are these : '^ The Church of Christ is the rule of 
faith, the judge of controversy, visible, universal, and 
without error ; the Roman communion is that church ; 
the Pope is by divine right, its sovereign head, su- 
preme judge and lawgiver in ail things relating to 
religion, whether as to faith, manners or discipline — - 
who, as the vicegerent of Jesus Christ, cannot err ; 
but upon every point of revelation, pronounces sen- 
tence clearly, distinctly, and with certainty infalli- 
ble." Tills privilege is of vast extent ; it com pre- 
bends />/5/2(?ry;j>ow^r — to determine upon the canonical 
authority of the sacred scriptures, and demands the 
belief or rejection of them in conformity with the pa- 
pal decision — \^ authorize the knowledge of the ce- 
lestial volume for us : this principle however, is now 
YQvj much altered ; formerly Popes, Cardinals, and 
the whole minor train of " Friars, black, white and 
grey," insisted that it w ould have been better for the 
Church if there were no Bible, and contended that 
they derived not their existence from the gcspei, but 
that the canon of revelation w^as indebted for its use 
among men to tlieir permission ; this dogma howev- 
er, since the invention of Printing and i\\Q Reforma- 
tior., has not been much promulged, although it is 
still generally beheved and practised among the ad- 
herents of the papacy — to expound the sense of the 
holy oracles, and with all that certitude, that every 
Chr's'ian is obliged without scruple to believe it ; 
he'ice, under papal interpretation, vice and virtue 
change their characteristics ; error and truth become 
metamorphosed; and that although Popes and Coun- 
cils in Q\e\:f age, have contradicted each other to the 
ntmost distance of possible separation; notwithstand- 
Inor they have, with all tcravity, fulminated every 



CENTURIES VII XV.i. 1 65 

Annthema which infernal malignity could invent 
against each other, the whole odious mass of contra- 
dictions and lies we are imnliciily to credit because 
tiiey are sanctioned by the Mother of Abominations 
— to decide peremptorily upon the additional doc- 
trines and duties indispensable to salvation, and to 
supply as emergencies require, from tradition and 
expediency, the deficiencies which they avow are ob- 
vious in " the Scripture of Truth;" by the operation 
of this claim, all the abhorrent appendages of the 
Roman superstitions in worship, the stupendous er- 
rors of their pretended creed of faith and morals, 
and tiie debasing immorality of their conversation 
and practice are indebted for their origin — and to 
decide all controversies without reference to scrip- 
ture, conscience, or any other tribunal ; this was in 
fact, an arrogation of boundless wisdom, and there- 
fore was evolved in tlie most contemptible specimens 
of ignorance and absurdity : sometimes by procrasti- 
nating a sentence until all the controvertists w^ere 
dead ; at other periods recommending peace among 
the m.endicant orders, that neither of them might be 
alienated from their servitude; always legislating in 
iavour of the strongest party ; and invariably prc-» 
mulging Bulls in direct opposition to the rights c^ 
conscience, the dictates of scripture, and the ordi- 
nances of Jehovah Jesus. Although it is self-evident 
that this pretended infalhbility could not possibly 
exist among men without a delegation of heavenly 
iniiuence never promised, and consequently not ne- 
cessary to the church militant, yet it has been claimed 
even m these states ; notwithstanding the parties who 
wish to grasp its authority are deeply convinced that 
it originated in '^ ignorance, superstition and error,'' 
and that it can only be supported by the reign of the 
same unhallowed principles. 

2. Hgw was the Papal Supremacy exercised f 
The authority of legislation and jurisdiction claimed 
by the Pontiff'of the Antichristian Apostacy is unlimr 
ited and supreme : •• he not only pretends that th^ 



166 ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. LECTURE IX, 

whole power and majesty of the church reside in his 
person, and are transmitted from him to the inferior 
bishops, but asserts the absolute infallibility of all 
decisions and decrees which he pronounces from his 
lordly tribunal." According to the genuine Romish 
faith, he is " the only visible source of the universal 
power which Christ has granted to the Church ; all 
bishops and subordinate officers derive from him 
alone their authority and jurisdiction ; he is not 
bound hj any laws of the church, nor decrees of 
councils ; he is the supreme lawgiver of that sacred 
community, and his edicts and commands, it is in the 
highest degree criminal to oppose or disobey." 

This pontifical supremacy disclosed itself in the 
enaction of laws for the government of the church ; 
in the ecclesiastical immunity from all temporal Ru- 
lers ; and in the disposal of kingdoms and empires, 
as a prerogative inalienably attached to the dignity 
and office of the Pope. It is astonishing, that any 
portion of the human farnily could have so fir relin- 
quished their rights and privileges, as to submit to a 
power so unfounded in its nature, so depraved in its 
practice, so subversive of all the ligaments of society, 
and so derogatory to the God of providence. By 
the effects of this ungodly domination, the whole 
order of the world was " turned upside down." At 
the promulgation of a papal Bull — Christianity and 
irreligion lost their distinctive characteristics ; the 
church of God was turned into the Synagogue of 
Satan; the idolatrous worship of Demons was res- 
tored under infallible authority; and the most ridicu- 
lous contradictions were obtruded as articles not only 
demonstrable, but of self-evident certainty. The 
exemption of the Priests belonging to the Papal 
multitude from the operation of national laws, trans- 
formed the whole state of society; and the claims 
which they made, to adopt their own language, con- 
sisted of the following with innumerable other similar 
assumptions. " Angels in heaven dare not aspire to 
the authority of the Priesthood, The Hierarchs, 



CENTURIES VII XVI, 167 

<he Priests ofihe church create their Creator, and 
have power over the body of Christ : the Priesthood 
walketh hand in hand with the Godhead, and Priests 
are Gods surpassing as much in dignity the royal 
oilice, as the soul surpasseth the body ; and the 
power of Priests is so great, and their excellency so 
noble, that heaven depends on them. Joshua step- 
ped the sun, but Priests stay Christ; the creature 
obeys Joshua, but the Creator obeys the Priest; and 
whatever God is in heaven the Priest is on earth." 
x\ll this blasphemy a true Pa])istmost conscientiously 
believes, and consequently when the nations were 
under Uie Romish ecclesiastical despotic dominion, 
it is obvious that " the people who sat in darkness, 
^aw not the great light, and to them who sat in the 
region and shadow of death no light sprung up."— 
The history that we shall detail, will unfold all the 
abominations which this abhorrent principle invaria- 
bly produced. In usurping the sole authority, as 
God's vicegerent, to distribute the kingdoms of the 
ten horns, without earthly interference or opposi- 
tion ; the Popes excited and nurtured an almost un- 
ceasing combustion among the European nations. 
Every spepies of disorder raged in consequence of 
this anti-social machination. The Sovereigns of the 
people were excommunicated, anathematized and 
dethroned, Vvith all the overwhelming coercion deriv- 
ed l^rom the power which pretended that it could 
"• do no wrong," and with all the intimidating sanc- 
tions which a catalogue of celestial names, the 
Pope's suppositious adherents could impart. One 
monarch was ordered to embody an irresistible force, 
that he might be enabled to drive another from his 
dominions ; while his subjects were forbidden upon: 
pain of immediate death for disobedience to papal 
mandates, and a transfer to purgatory or the quench- 
less iirc. to any defence of their own country against 
the ruthless devastations of sanguinary invaders ;• 
wdiosc peremptory orders directed them to execute 
the Pope's curse, by fire and sword, unpitying massa- 



ljQ8 ECCLESiASTICAL HiSTORY. LECTURE IX. 

ere and universal destruction. From the effects of 
these combined despotisQis when in actual exercise, 
the ten horns of the Beast frequently, in cliaracter 
and similitude, approximated a general Aceldama, 
a vast field of blood, equalled only by the degrada- 
tion of ignorance in which the people were entombed, 
and by the almost incredible corruption of manners, 
"which like a pestilence involved in its ravages all 
classes of the popedom, from the Man of Sin through 
every gradation, even to the lowest and most silly 
Devotee who superstitiously crossed himself witli 
holy w^ater, or idolatrously chaunted, " Ave Maria 
Regina coeli — Hail P^ary, Queen of Heaven." 

The prominent features of the Mother of Abomi- 
imtions when exhibited in detail furnish a hideous 
display of the state of the world at this period, and 
should excite our unfeigned gratitude to God, that 
we have not been delivered over to her abhorrent 
sway. In what a most degrading vassalage the hu- 
man intellects and sensibilities were enchained dur- 
ing the uncontrouled reign of this terrestrial Vicege- 
rent of Satan, we who have never witnessed scarcely 
the most minute example of its intolerance and op- 
pression can form no very accurate idea. Nor would 
the painful scrutiny of the past be of so much impor- 
tance^ if the dignified moral lessons which it incul- 
cates were not so impressive and beneficial: but when 
the examination produces all those awakenings of soul 
which attract the believer to "the thi*one of grace ;'' 
and when humiliation in the retrospect, for the extreme 
depravity al our ancestors, is conjoined with triumph 
in anticipation, that the Usurper shall be dislodged 
from his odious government, and that he " who is ex- 
alted Prince and Saviour," shall possess undivided 
and illimitable authority over all the tribes of men ; 
\ve shall engage in the review, invoking the celestial 
benediction, that our labour may " not be in vain in 
the Lord." 



The principal diaracl eristics of the Roman ^postacy. 



From the Apostolic epistles we deduce, that even 
in the first figes orChristianity, a corruption of evan- 
gelical truth was attempted, and that it in some mea- 
i^ure succeeded. "Worshippingof Angels," anti-evan- 
gelical "voluntary humility and neglecting of the bo- 
dy,"had been partially introduced; all which Paul de- 
nominates " WiiUvorshipy In the second century 
commenced the iponastic opinions concerning celi- 
bacy; the partial institution of Fasts and Feasts ; 
and the improper use of the sentence of excommuni- 
cation. During the third age, the memorial of the 
Martyrs was solemnized, oblations for the dead 
Were instituted, the sacraments were deteriorated by 
the practice of the trine application of Avater, and 
signing the forehead with the cross in Baptism ; 
and consecrated bread was preserved in a chest, 
that the Eucharist might be carried in procession to 
the siekand dying. Additional degrees of ministers 
with peculiar vestments to each order were arrang- 
ed and appointed ; and in consequence of the se- 
vere persecution under Valerian, the solitary mode 
of life was adopted. After the establishment of 
Christianity by the triumphs of Constantine over all 
the idolaters, the corruption already existing was 
augmented by the collection and preservation of 
Martyr's relics, to which great honour was apropri- 
ated ; by the pilgrimage to Jerusalem ; by the en- 
largement ot the monastic system ; by an additional 
number of festivals ; by the increase of the rites and 
ceremonies with which the worship of God was 
encumbered ; and by the substitution of human tra- 
ditions for the Gospel of Christ. 

X 



170 ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. LECTURE X. 

After these defections had completely trammelled 
the souls of men ; Pictures and Images were intro- 
duced into the Houses of prayer, and gorgeous Al- 
tars were erected. The doctrines and practice of 
Romish Penance were partly embodied in the ec- 
clesiastical regulations ; the deceased Martyrs were 
commemorated by feasts at their Tombs; the dead 
were addressed as objects of prayer ; and a species 
of worship was offered to the suppositious remains 
of those who had formerly died for their " testimony 
to Jesus." In the sixth century the Lord's supper, 
at Rome and her immediate dependencies, was trans- 
formed into a sacrifice, and Mass for the living and the 
dead ; the clergy were exempted from the civil ju- 
risdiction by the Emperor Justinian; indulgences 
were at this period allowed ; the picture of the Vir- 
gin Mary was cariied about in solemn procession ; 
and the unextinguished wax-lights, before statues, 
images, pictures, and upon the altars in the churches, 
were also enjoined. The year 606 is remarkable ; 
being the era when Boniface Bishop of Rome, appro- 
priated to himself the titles of Universal Bishop and 
Supreme head of the church ; and almost immediately 
after this usurpation, the Pantheon at Rome, the anci- 
ent idolatrous temple of all the Gods, was opened and 
consecrated to the worship of the Virgin Mary and 
all saints. The sacramental elements were elevated 
on high for adoration; the marriage of priests was 
pronounced unlawful; the invocation of saints was 
admitted; and to consummate the wondrously accel- 
erating ignorance of the senseless multitudes, it 
was authoritatively determined and decreed, that 
divine service should always and in every nation 
be performed in the Latin tongue alone : — -this event 
happened in the year 666 ; thus most curiously, lu- 
cidly, and exactly determining the application of 
John's prediction. These events were in the suc- 
ceeding generations followed by the solemn sanction 
of the image-worship ; the introduction of private 
masses ; abstiaence from certain meats ; novel pil- 



CE-M'LRIES VJi XVI. 171 

grimages to churches ; and the canonization of saints. 
At this period, during the ninth and tenth centuries, 
the abomination of desolation was seated in the 
temple of God. The ecclesiastical rulers were no- 
thing but human monsters; and the precise wonder 
of the apocaljptic vision was seen, for a most aban- 
doned woman became Pope. At the commencement 
of the tenth century, the doctrine of the corporeal 
presence of Christ in the eucharistic bread was pub- 
licly maintained ; the Beads were invented ; and the 
Baptism of Bells authorized : in short, this and the 
following centuries are peculiarly infamous in the 
annals of the world for their superabounding igno- 
rance and vice; and for the disputatioLS between 
the Popes and the Emperors, and the Candidates 
for the! Papacy, which perpetuated an almost cease- 
less ferment throughout all the dominions of the 
Beast. To display more effectually the stupidity of 
the European people of those generations ; they ad- 
mitted all the preposterous absurdities involved in 
transubstantiation ; implicitly believed in the phan- 
toms of purgatory ; united most cordially in the pray- 
<^rs and masses which were offered for the ransom of 
the souls ingulphed in that ideal receptacle of the 
dead; whi,ie they admired and confided in the cer- 
tainty and efficacy of the most bungling counterfeits 
and impostures, as the genuine miraculous effects of 
merciful Omnipotence. 

Among the remarkable events of the twelfth cen- 
tury, the establishment of the Canon law appears 
prominent ; this was a digest of all the decretals 
and laws promulged by the earliest councils and by 
the first Popes, and their successors in every age ; 
and having received the pontifical sanction, being an 
essential part of education in ail the universities, and 
forming the rules of practice in every Spiritual Court, 
it aggrandized the papal power to its utmost terres- 
trial plenitude. By this artifice, the cup speedily 
subsequent was denied to the Laity in the Eucharist; 
Transobstantiation was definitivelv established ; and 



U2 ^CCLEiUSTICAL BiSTORy. LtXTURE %, 

Auricular confession was primarily, but peremptorily, 
absolutely and irrevocably enjoineii. Notw ithstand- 
ing the total separation of the Greek church from 
the Roman communion ; the organization of the 
Augustine and Carmelite Friars^ and the Franciscan, 
with the Dominican Monks, sustained the dignity and 
claims of the spiritual despotism. At the commence- 
ment of the fourteenth century, the church was go- 
verned by Boniface, the inventor of the Romish jubi- 
lee, a monster, of whom it is narrated, " that he en- 
tered the Papacy like a Fox, governed as a Lion, 
and died like a Dog." In this death-like condition 
of intelligence and religion, the greater portion of the 
nominal disciples of Jesus remained; episcopal tyran- 
ny was exercised without the smallest restraint; and 
the pride, luxury, blasphemy and licentiousnes's of all 
orders of men associated with the apostate Hierarchy, 
w^ere predominant and uncontrouied, until the Lord 
roused Luther to commence thatfight of faith, which 
has produced a totally new system of affairs. Of the 
wretched state of the people and of the necessity of 
a thorough Reformation, one fact alone is ample 
evidence. Leo the tenth then Pope, only two years 
prior to the publication of Luther's propositions 
against Indulgences, used to boast among his Atheis- 
tic companions, that '^ Christicmiiy was a profitable 
Fable,'''' ff such was the Head of the Church, what 
must the Members have been either in faith or 
purity } 

This concise retrospect of the progress of the Pa- 
pacy induces the inquiry — whence did such abhor- 
rent corruptions spring, and by v,hat means were 
they supported ? After the victories of Constantino 
had exterminated the, ravages of persecution, during 
the season of peace and prosperity, and especially 
by the boundless liberality of that Emperor, the min- 
isters of the church were elevated to high earthly 
rank, profusely supplied, and magnificently attended. 
Hence, was their desolation : this principle v/as not 
diminished by the irruptions of the Northern Barba- 



CENTURIES Vll.-^XVi. 173 

jiaiis, or the consequent decreasing revenue attached 
to their offices. Covetousness and ambition were 
paramount ; and all the principal iniquitous practi- 
ces \vliich ue have briefly enumerated, only tended 
to whqt the insatiable voracity that characterized 
the ecclesiastical rulers and their subordinate agents. 
The Romish ti'aditions and observances were artiiilly 
contrived to promote the acquisition of wealth by 
the chiefs of that apostacy. Purgatory, and Masses 
ibr the dead, were the most profitable pursuit in this 
vain world ; for what donation could be too large to 
deliver their friends from purgatorial torments ; and 
how could they sufficiently repay those powerful In- 
tercessors, who alone could liberate them ? and as all 
these eilects were produced, according to their owa 
statement, by the departed saints of their own order^ 
prayer to the dead, however impious, became a ne^ 
v.essary adjunct of the system. The Indulgences 
and Pardons also were well adapted to amass wealth: 
for a price was fixed for every crime which could be 
committed ; and the payment of the tax absolved the 
transgressor from all punishment by human laws, and 
from all danger, as they averred, in the world to 
come. For the same object, were invented the doc- 
trines of supererogation, the superabundance of the 
Saints' merits, and the Avorship of Images ; because 
it was of no use, as they promulged, to address the 
Virgin Mary or a Saint without a large oblation ! If 
we subjoin to these methods of pilfering the deluded 
multitudes, the sale of permissions to celebrate the 
Jubilees, and the necessity of valuable offerings to 
be presented to the Saint to whom they made their 
pilgrimages, we may justly coincide with an old 
Popish Commentator upon the Apocalypse ; who 
declared, that " the Merchants of the earth, spoken 
of in the eighteenth chapter of that book, are Priests 
who sell prayers and masses for money, making the~ 
House of prayer a house of merchandize." 

But their inordinate ambition is equally perceptible 
with their immoderate avarice. Every machination 



1/4 ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. LECTURE X. 

was adjusted to produce this result. By transubstaii- 
tiation, it was affirmed, that they transmuted a mor- 
sel of bread into the real flesh and Mood of the 
Redeemer ; thus exalting the Priests above the An- 
gelic hosts in dignity ; the cup in the Sacrament of 
the Supper wsls confined to the Clergy, that they 
might be more highly reverenced ; and their worship 
was performed in Latin, that the Priest who could 
mutter the jargon might be esteemed as of a superior 
order of intelligences. Auricular confession involved 
a virtual surrender of all personal and mental inde- 
pendence ; and absolution for sin placed every one 
who confided in the Priest's authority, as it respected 
his individual peace, social comfort, and reputation 
in the world, entirely under this tremendous juris- 
diction. Ail which was almost inseparably com- 
pacted together by the exemption of the clergy from 
the civil law, and the influence of that thunder which 
aceompanied the excommunications of a Pope su- 
preme and infallible. 

The encouragement of ignorance constituted an- 
other source of the long continuance of the Romish 
corruptions and superstitions. Very few of the Priests 
understood their own mass-books ; th^ sacred vol- 
ume was scarcely if ever seen by a vast majority of 
the ecclesiastics. Even at the period of the Protest- 
ant Revolution, Carolstadt was a Doctor of Divinity, 
eight years before he had even read the Scriptures ; 
and the highest dignitaries of the church were pro- 
foundly ignorant even of the existence of the word 
of God. A genuine Papist walketh in darkness ; 
f^ mystery and Babylon are his badge ; blindness is 
essential to him." In Italy at a former era, an order 
of Friars existed, who were denominated the Brethren 
of Ignorance ; these solemnly swore, that they would 
not read, know or learn any thing. Popery sprang 
from Ignorance and Barbarism, and it has been nur- 
tured by the same odious principles. The departure 
from the primitive roles and spirit of the Gospel ; the 
frauds which were multiplied beyond credibility x 



CENTURIES VII — XVI. 175 

the depression of the civil powers, by excommuni- 
cating and deposing the highest officers of the states; 
and the wondrous sanction given to every species of 
vicious abomination, all guaranteed the stability of 
this woful superstructure, which in its ruin will 
eventually crush all its adherents. 

That all ranks of persons should combine to sup- 
port so monstrous an anomaly as that which we have 
now contemplated, is to the highest degree astonish^ 
ing. Emperors, Kings and Princes with their in- 
ferior Ministers all united, and almost without 
cessation, to uphold this wretched despotism ; the 
watchmen upon the walls of the church became su- 
pine and stupiiied, until they were nearly overwhelm- 
ed in an irrecoverable carnal-security; and the mass 
of the people, to gratify their unhallov/ed passions by 
unrestrained indulgence, and to delight their senses 
with pomp and amusing ceremonial exhibitions, join- 
ed their energies to maintain a system, which substi- 
tuted the form for the substance, and " the pagean- 
try of devotion" for internal sanctity. Thus gradually 
evangelical doctrine was corrupted, the morals of 
society degenerated, and papal usurpations extended 
to their widest possible boundary ; so that the once 
•• faithful city became a Harlot." 

A more distinct notice of the grand points in the 
Papacy^ than this cursory enumeration contains, is 
requisite to enable us to realize the importance and 
necessity of the change, which, through the divine 
blessing, was effected by the Reformers. 

The foundation of the Roman Hierarchy, is the 
supremacy of the Pope over all the church ; which, 
according to the most famous Canonists, is the very 
substance of Christianity. By this prerogative he 
alone is empowered " to convene councils; to ratify 
their decrees, to ordain Bishops ; to enact ecclesias- 
tical laws ; to hear appeals, to correct censures ; to 
bind and loose in every difficulty ; and thus becomes 
the monarch of Christians ;" the belief of which 
?issumption, they affirm to be indispensable to salva- 



IfG E1CCJ.ESIASTICAL HISTOJlY, LECTURE X; 

tion. But this position is evidently a mere absurdityj 
contrary to the dignity of the Redeemer, invalidated 
by the scriptures, and opposed in every age, from 
the primary exhibitions of episcopal arrogance at 
Rome, until Leo's triple crown was divested of all 
the reverence and dread w hich had previously been 
its inherent concomitant. 

By this change, the w^iole govehiment of the 
church appointed by the Gospel was subverted ; the 
people were despoiled of their rights ; and the most 
atrocious enormities were perpetrated with impunity. 

Connected with this usurpation, is the pretended 
Infallibility claimed by the Pope, combining a su- 
preme Potentate on points of jurisdiction, and a 
Judge from whom no appeal exists on topics of con- 
troversy. This stupendous claim however, has al- 
ways been a source of strife ; some writers have de- 
posited the celestial attribute in the Pope individual- 
ly; many have transferred it to a General Council; 
while others have devolved it upon the Council and 
the Pope, in unison. It seems at length to have 
been the decision of a large majority of the dispu- 
tants, that k is the immunity of the Pope to decide 
the true sense of scripture, and all articles of faith, 
because he cannot err. To develope the irrational- 
ity of this dogma; it is only necessary to remember, 
that among the Popes have been Heretics of every 
degree, from Arianism to Atheism— now it is impos- 
sible to believe that a privilege belonging to God 
alone, could have been communicated to those who 
blasphemously denied, the existence of a Deity, and 
the immortality of the soul. 

" The first article of their theology Was, that there 
is no God; the second, that the history of Jesus 
Christ is falsehood and imposture; and the third/ 
that a future life, and the resurrection of the dead 
are mere fables." 

But they were not erroneous in sentiment only^ 
they were most outrageously abominable in practice: 
during the dark ages, artid peculiaTiy for one hundred 



GENTURItlS Vll — XVi. 1T7 

Und fifty years feifter Pope Joan, the man of sin as 
I'mbodied in the ruler of the church, manifested 
till that was execrable, and like the old Dragon his 
Master, infernal. ''The Popes, with the college 
of cardinals, and the whole Ijost of the clergy, were 
abandoned to all kinds of impurity, and to every 
specie^ of enormity and crhne, so that they resembled 
monsters rather than men ; and instead of being 
head of all the churthes, she is not worthy to be 
accounted one of the smallest toes of the Church's 
feet." If this he insufficient to abrogate the claim of 
the pretended successor of Peter, a third fact must 
for ever obliterate it ; more than one Pope has 
existed at the same time. On a variety of occasions, 
two and three Popes have exercised this appalling 
power; anathematizing each other and their mutual 
adherents, with the same acrimony which the}^ 
evinced towards those witnesses who prophesied in 
sackcloth, all the ten horns of the Beast having 
thus been infallibly and simultaneously accursed.; 
and "filling Europe with the misery of their conten- 
tions." To these considerations, may be added the 
wondrous discrepancies among the Popes in succes- 
sion ; so that one has annulled the canons which 
iiis predecessor decreed ; thus establishing an infal- 
libility of palpable contradictions. 

The pleas on behalf of the infallibility of councils 
are equally invalid ; for it is the incontestable de- 
duction, certified by the proceedings and decisions 
of every large assembly of every name and deno- 
mination, collected for ecclesiastical purposes of 
jurisdiction and legislation, since the period when 
Constantine became sole undisputed Master of the 
ancient Roman em])ire, that the principles of cor- 
ruption are inherent m those bodies, and that with 
few exceptions^ the same motives impel them which 
originally engendered the Mother of abominations, 
avarice and oinUiion. Whether therefore we scrutinize 
the pretensions of the Popes alone, or of councils 
only, or of both these would be '^ Lords of God's 

• Y 



178 ^ECCLESIASTICAL filSTORY. LECTURE t.. 

Heritage" in conjunction, we arrive at the same con- 
clusion ; that they are intruders upon Imtnanuel's 
inalienahle prerogative, as the Sovereign Judge of 
all. It hence follows, that this fundamental position, 
by which all the apostacy is defended, iB without the 
shadow of reality. A universal visible church is 
merely an imaginary phantom ; even were it an 
existing body the Bishop of Rome can offer no claim 
to be its head ; the office even of Pope is an irrational, 
^* unscriptural and very pernicious usurpation, a 
most audacious and impious assumption, which 
distinctly avows, that the Redeemer is either absent 
from his people, or negligent of their interests, or 
incompetent to supply and protect them." What a 
daring impostor thus to nullify the Mediator's office, 
and the Saviour's promise ! and as to the pretext of 
an impossibility of error in decision ; infallibility is 
needless in itself, contrary to our state of probation,, 
renders the Gospel ministry an unnecessary institu- 
tion, and would be of no use, unless all the disciples 
of the infallible Judge were endued with the same 
liberation from ignorance and error. When with 
these considerations, we connect the discord be- 
tween the Popes, the impossibility of determining 
who possesses this mysterious authority, and the cer- 
tainty that these pretenders to infallibility, Popes 
and Councils, have in every age almost uniformly 
departed from the " Scriptures of truth," we, like 
the Apostle John, are ready to " wonder with great 
admiration," at the sight of this " Mystery, Babylon 
the Great, who reigneth over the kings of the earth."" 
By the doctrine of transubstantiation which de- 
clares, that after the Romish Priest at the Eucharist 
has pronounced the words, "Hoc est corpus meum, 
this is my body," the bread and wine disappear, and 
the real body and blood of Christ are substituted ; 
every dictate of scripture and reason are subverted .• 
and yet this most incomprehensible and contradictory 
of all hunian absurdities, we are commanded to be- 
lieve^ or we shall be accursed. This is one of the cor-- 



CENTURIES VU. XVI. 17$ 

yuptions of the Lord's supper; another is, that the bo- 
dy and blood of Christ are really and properly sacrifi- 
ced in every mass, vi^hich by a renewed presentation 
of it to the Father, is a propitiation lor the living 
and the dead. " The Mass is not only a sacrile- 
gious profanation, but a total annihilation of the 
Lord's supper, for it includes most insulting bhis- 
phemy to the Redeemer ; obliterates the cross and 
passion of Christ; and prevents us from reflecting 
upon the death of the Saviour, and consequently 
deprives us of the benefits which it w^as intended to 
bestow." A third deterioration of this Sacrament, 
consists in a denial of the cup to the people ; but 
this destroys the very nature and object of Christ's 
institution. It was designed by our gracious Saviour 
to ^'shew the Lord's death till he come." The 
Popish interpretation and practice completely con- 
ceals and extinguishes this grand purpose of the 
appointment. 

That unseen region, Purgatory, owes its visionary 
existence, to this deterioration of the communion. 
This w as a most valuable land to all the parties con- 
cerned in the traffic; for it enriched the selling Priest, 
and comforted the stupid purchaser. It is delineated 
by some as a station exactly equi-distant from heaven 
and hell ; by others, nearer the regions of wo ; but 
by all, it is represented as a state of comparative 
torture, because its residents are excluded from 
Paradise. Into this receptacle of the dead, all Ca- 
tholics, we are assured, who have not obtained a 
sufficiency of merit for their admission into heaven, 
immediately enter after their dissolution. In thig 
wretched condition, they were doomed by the Monks 
and Friars to continue, without hope of deliverance ; 
unless the certain specified sum was paid for masses 
and prayers for their redemption : hence originated 
an almost incredible anomaly ; the departed saints, 
the besotted multitudes were taught to believe, in- 
terceded for the living ; and notwithstanding they 
were addressed in the language of prayer hy those 






180 ECCLESIASTICAL IliSTORy. LECTUR^ X, 

in the body for their assistance ; yet it was equally 
requisite for the survivors to make oblations and 
implore mercy for them ; still this most unaccount- 
able medley of odious pilfering and ignorance pro- 
duced neither disgust nor astonishment ; although 
if the most obtuse reflection had been even mo- 
mentarily admitted, it wodld instantaaepusly have 
been perceptible, that this procedure decided the 
possession of heavenly joy, not by faith, repentance 
and holiness, but by the ability to satiate the rapa- 
cious demon of covetousness. As a necessary con- 
sequence of this manoeuvre, all restraint upon vitios- 
ityvvas removed; and the soul was represented as 
secure for eternity, provided an ample price was 
paid for present absolution, and future ransom ; 
thus combining the robbery of their deluded vota- 
ries in both worlds. 

In immediate conection with these topics, is the 
dogma which they promulge concerning the worlds 
of supererogation and Indulgences. This asserts, 
'• that some holy men have performed more, good 
^yorks, than God requires of them, or were ne- 
cessary to secure their own salvation, and that 
this surplus merit is deposited in the treasury of the 
church of which the Pope holds the keys, that he 
may confer portions at his pleasure upon those who 
are dejficient in good works." This stupendous here- 
tical theory, obviously sanctioned the doctrine of 
Indulgences ; which is farther sustained by the posi- 
tions, that punishments remain after sin forgiven ; 
that there is a purgatory ; and that these merits of 
supererogation, may be and are applied by the 
church. This system was regulated by the utmost 
exactitude of calculation, and transformed the whole 
Hierarchy into a '* great Custom House for sin." Yet 
this is also pronounced an obligatory part of the 
faith of every Papist ; and that which is extremely 
Surprising is, that notwithstanding the sale ot these 
Indulgences, formed the basis of the glorious Refor- 
knation ; they are yet vended and purchased with 



^ 



OEKTURIES VII XVI. 181 

almost undiminished solicitude, throughout all those 
countries which still sincerely adhere to the Beast, 
and '' receive his mark in their foreheads.'' 

Pilgrimage to the tombs and the images of the 
dead saints, that the devotee might obtain the bene- 
fits of their intercession in heaven on their behalf, 
through the application of a large donation to the 
Priest, the guardian of his statue on earth, is ano- 
ther of the impositions with which the Roman Apos- 
tate has burdened the church. 

Extreme unction, or the anointing of the sick 
with oil as they are departing from this world, after 
all hopes of the patient's recovery are extinguished, 
is a most deceptive and soul-killing ceremony. It 
is represented as a Sacrament by which Grace ife 
conferred, sin remitted, and the sick are comforted ; 
and the sentence of anathema, is definitively pro- 
nounced against all those who deny that the ancient 
gift of healing from which the practice was profess- 
edly adopted, had not been transformed into a sa- 
cred and sure passport for the dying intq the kingdom 
ofheaven. 

Auricular confession and the prohibition of mar- 
riage to the Priests have been thus forcibly described. 
** The immeasurable confidence poured by all the 
individuals of his charge into the bosom of one manj 
and the almost absolute influence which it gives him 
over them; must be engines which an u^nprincipled 
jPriest can turn to the utmost dreadful purposes of 
intrigue and Villainy. Not only the virtue and hap-* 
piness of individuals, but the vital interests of fami-? 
lies and often of mighty kingdoms, have thus been 
subject to the management of a confessor, and sacri- 
ficed to his bigotry and wickedness. These thmga 
are now for the most part shrouded in secrecy ; but , 
when the day shall arise, that "will bring to light 
the hidden things of darkness" — what depths of ini- 
quity thus concealed, will it not disclose ! The 
iorced celibacy of the clergy, in combination with 
the practice of private confession, often proves the 



1812 ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. LECTURE X^ 

occasion of criminalities which poison the very 
springs of domestic virtue, and which the degraded 
state of public morals, in the countries where they 
prevail, scarcely urges to disguise. On this crying 
abomination, many members of the Roman commu- 
nion have complained often and vehemently, but in 
vain. By the decrees of councils, the dispensation 
of popes, the decision of canonists, and by the 
general practice of the church of Rome, the con- 
cubinage of Priests is adjydged a less offence than 
their marriage. But why is this anti-scriptural and 
iniquitous law thus permitted to pollute the world ? 
Because it cuts off their clergy from family attach- 
ments and patriotic connections ; because it more 
closely intwines their personal feelings with the inte- 
rests of their order ; because it thus makes them an 
army of devoted J anizarios of the Pope ; and because 
it powerfully attracts into the coffers of their church 
whatever property the Priest may acquire." 

Two additional particulars must be illustrated to 
complete the catalogue of those more obvious con- 
tradictions to the word of God which elicited the 
protest of the early Reformers against the Roman Hi- 
erarchy : Ignorance. This was developed in two forms 
-t-the prohibition of the Scriptures in the vernacular 
tongues; and the invariable and universal adoption of 
the Latin language as the vehicle of devotion. 
^' Search the Scriptures," is the injunction of the Re- 
deemer ; but the Pope has placed them in the prohib- 
ited catalogue. If the reason be asked, why the peo- 
ple are precluded from a perusal of the sacred volume, 
the reply is easy—the Hierarchs desire to promote 
the ignorance of the multitude ; and are perfectly 
convinced that if the inspired records were generally 
examined, their own abominations and superstitions 
will be fully discovered. Hence, one of their most 
famous defenders candidly urges as an argument a- 
gainst the translation and circulation of the Bible ; 
" that when the people see that things are required 
l?>y the Church of Rome to be- done by them, as if 



CpNTtTRIE'9 ^h. — IV K 1 Sjr 

iiiey were of Apostolical command, and yet cannot 
find a word of them in Scripture, ihey will be inclin- 
ed to murmur.'^ The principles, which Rome incul- 
cates concerning divine truth, are repugnant to all in^ 
telligence. That Chuich decrees, that their tradi- 
tions are of identical authority with the written word,- 
and of equal validity Avith the gospel and epistles of 
the Apostles and Evangelists ; that the unlimited pe- 
rusal of the divine oracles in the common languages of 
the country is injurious ; and that the Bible as inter- 
preted by every individual's construction, is not a-^ 
dapted to all capacities ; that it does not reveal alf 
the truth requisite to our salvation ; that it is not suf- 
ticiently certain for a sure confidence; and conse- 
quently, that it hdiS not one of the qualities necessary 
to constitute the rule of faith. With these impulses 
and views, it excites no surprise, that all the remain- 
ing energy which the Pope and his agents possess, 
should be exerted to the utmost against the present 
endeavors to disseminate the knowledge of the won- 
derful works of God, by means of Sabbath Schools, 
and the distribution of the " glorious Gospel of the 
ever blessed God." Their ignorance became the 
mother of their devotion, "and to seek information 
was heresy." 

But this even would have been ineffectual, had 
they not conjoined to it the performance of all their 
devotions in a dead language ; and this fact while it 
lucidly fulfils John's prophecy, completely debarred- 
all hope of change or amendment. The Latin was, 
and is, as little understood by the Priest, as by his 
auditory ; and it is the decision of the learned among 
them, upon that part of Paul's epistle to the Corin- 
thians, when he forbids the use of an unknown lan- 
guage, that " it is not necessary to understand the 
words of Prayer ; it is enough that people can tell 
that this holy orison is appointed them by the church ; 
more is not requisite." The Egyptian darkness, 
which still hovers over all thos« parts of the world 
v;here the Roman superstitions and apostacy predom- 



\Bi ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORV. LtCTUHL |i 

inate in full vigour, is therefore a natural consequence 
of their unmeaning worship, and their total clesii- 
'tution of the light and the truth. In this absurdity, 
i^operj commenced ; bj its eflfects, that system has 
been perpetuated nearly 1200 years ; and it will be 
demolished by the universal diffusion oi the Bible in 
all the existing languages spoken among mankind. 

Idolatry. — The appropriation of divine worship to 
creatures; to the Virgin Mary, to Angels, to depart- 
ed Saints, to the relics of Saints, to the cross, to the 
sacramental wafer, to images, to statues, and to pic- 
tures: as it is one of the most obvious, so it is one oC 
the most heinous properties of that "falling away" 
which is connected with a submission to the Beast. 
^^ He is an idolater who exalts any thing beyond the 
measure of human honour, as if it were of divine sub- 
limity," this was the declaration made against the an- 
cient Bacchanalians; and to prove its application to 
the Papists, we shall examine the parallel between 
^e Pagan and Christian Romans. 

Both parties acknowledged and adored one su-^ 
preme Gad, but they superadded inferior objects of 
worship ; the heathens denominated their heros, de* 
mons ; and without doubt justly — the Catholics desig- 
nated their intercessors, as angels and saints ; but the 
difference is merely nominal. 

The old Greeks and Romans and Barbarians form- 
ed images and Statues, for each of their imaginary 
Deities — -the majority considering them merely as re- 
presentatives and symbols oftlieir Gods : very few of 
the Papists, probably, if they were seriously exam- 
ined, would say that their Agnus Dei, or crucifix, or 
image, was truly and vitally what it appeared exter- 
nally to be ; yet th^y bow down to them, serve them, 
ajid honor them with religious ceremonies. 

Polytheism pretended to distinguish between the 
worship appropriated to Jupiter, and that which was 
ofiered to the minor idols ; so the Papist contrives to 
exculpate himself from the imputation of being an 
Idolator — by expunging the seot>nd commandment 



CENliJRtES Vil \V{. 1S5 

from iihe tlecaloguC; nnd by a frivolous pleo, that ho 
worships God direcUy and absolutely ; but the saints, 
relics,' &c. iiMiirectly and relatively. What diiference 
is perceptible, between Israefs sin; who danced and 
played before the Cnlf; and the Papist's festivals 
and procession^?, around the crucifix and the Agnus 
Dei ? 

The venerniion aiul invocation of angels were an 
ancient transler i'rom Paganism to Christianity, or 
i\aul would not have reproved them in his epistle to 
the Saints and faithful Brethren in Christ at Colosse; 
but these are expressly enjoined by the Councils, and 
ibrms of prayer have been composed for each saint's 
worship. This is part of every Papist's creed, which 
is pronounced to be infallibly scriptural; and which 
every olHcer in tlie Fioman Hierarchy, from the Beast 
with his triple crown to the meanest Janitor in a 
convent, all swear that they believe. " The saints 
reigning together with Christ, are to be worshipped 
and prayed unto ; for they do offer prayer unto God 
for us, and their relics are to be had in veneration. 
The images of Christ, of the blessed Virgin, the 
mother of God, and of other Saints, ought to be had 
and retained, and due honour and veneration ought 
to be given then:i." We, in this Republic, feel little 
or no aversion from the Papacy, because we fear it 
not ; butour seern-ifv irom its cruel fangs, diminishes 
not its odious qualities, nor will it impede its certain 
destruction. That you may comprehend something 
of the idolatrous attachment to the Virgin Mary, 
listen to the impiety of their most oracular writers. 
She is entitled " the Queen of Heaven, to whom the 
]\ing of Kings, the Heavenly Father has given half 
of his kingdom: God hath divided his kingdom with 
(he Virgin Mary : All things and persons serve to the 
Empire of the Virgin, even God himself: and no 
Drcf^rence exists between the Mother's milk and the 
Son's blood : from her fulness, the whole sacred 
Trinity receives its glory ;" and when dying, they 
close their mortal course by these words, '^ O blessed 

Z 



186 ECCLESIASTICAL HISiORf. LECTURE X.' 

Virgin, Mother of God, into thy hands I commend 
my spirit." But more of this horrid blasphemy must 
not be quoted. 

The whole v, orld was subdivided among the Saints. 
All the diseases of the body ; every mechanical em- 
ployment ; all kinds of business, with the persons 
engaged in them, were allotted to the different invis- 
ible celestial Protectors ; and mercy, grace, pardon, 
protection, deliverance, and ail temporal blessings, 
are supplicated from their benevolence. Of this 
idolatry we have a curious exemplification in the 
city of Padua in Italy. St. Anthony was the Patron 
of Hog-drivers. A chapel is there erected to his 
honour, in the interior of which is this inscription 
under his image : 

Exaudit, quos non audit et ipse Deus. 
'- This Saint hears those whom God himself doth not 
hear ;" and this is the general Popish dogma ; that 
prayer offered to the Saints and the Virgin Mary, 
will be more efocacious and prosperous than if ad- 
dressed to the Supreme ; consequently, the Father 
of our Lord Jes^iis Christ is excluded from devotional 
regard. 

Not only is idolatrous worship manifested towards 
human persons dead, but also to created things. One 
of the canons asserts, that " the sacred bodies of 
Martyrs and others living with Christ are to be wor- 
shipped by Believers, and the relics of the Saints are 
to be had in veneration." The w^orship of the cross 
is an essential part of Popery, the very mark of the 
Beast and his image ; and every piece of rotten wood, 
in a Priest's hands, is metamorphosed into a rem- 
nant of the true cross on Calvary. Several pieces for 
the devotees to kiss, have been exhibited even in 
this Union ; so that the quaint remark of an old Pu- 
ritan is not hyperbolical ; " had the w ood of the cross 
grown from the first day it was set in the earth till 
now^, and borne crosses, it would not have filled so 
many carts, as that which now^ is in several parts of 
Christendom £:iven out and adored for the true cross 



> 



CExNTUniES VII. XVI. 187 

of Christ.'' Respecting tiie Sncrameritai Bread or 
Host, it is thus inraiiibly determined ; '•'- ail the faith- 
ful people of Christ, do give to this Holy Sacra^ment, 
in their veneration of it, the worship which is due to 
the true God :" and their practice accords with the 
canon ; for when the Priest elevates the Host, he and 
all others bow down and adore it; and this idolatry 
is exhibited in these states, equally as in Peter's 
Church at Rome. Images, Statues, and Pictures re- 
ceive all the adoration from the Papists which the 
Bacchanalians presented to their blocks of wood and 
marble. These are the words of the law ; '• the im- 
ages of Christ and the Mother of God, who was al- 
ways a Virgin, and of other Saints also, are to be had 
and retained, and due honour and veneration are to 
be paid to them : and the honour which is given to 
images is referred to the Prototypes represented by 
them ; so that by the images w^iich we kiss, and before 
which we kneel, we adore Christ and reverence his 
Saints, whom those images represent." One of their 
expositors denominated Angelic, and of undeniable 
authority, declares, that" the same honour is due to 
the image as to the original ; and therefore a cruci- 
fix must be adored with the same adoration which 
we offer to Christ." As an unavoidable result of this 
doctrine, they ascribe the augmentation of Faith and 
good works to the images ; they pray to them for an 
increase of grace, and to blot out their sins; they fiy 
to them in all danger as a refuge, and confide in them 
as their most powerful Saviours. 

The Lord instituted two Sacraments, but the Pa- 
pists have augmented that number to seven ; so that 
in addition to the evangelical appointments, they 
enumerate these mysteries, the merely visionary off- 
spring of their ow^n corruptions. Confirmation of 
persons arrived at years of discretloo by the imposi- 
tion of a Bishop's hands—Penance, or what Paul 
calls, " neglecting of the body" — Extreme Unction, 
by which it is pretended the sick obtain remission of 
sin, and deliverance from disease, or the salvation of 



188 



ECCLESIASTICAL HiSTORY. LECTURE K , 



i'le soul — Ecclesiastical orders, corr^prisifig Beadles, 
Headers, Exorcists, Acoiothjsts, Suh-Deacons, Dea- 
♦>ons and Priests, ail of which they aitirm that Chrisi 
iumself had been ; and the ceremonies used at thie 
initiation into each of which, they assert, cause in- 
visible grace — -and Matrimony ; and by their laws 
concerning this ordinance of God ; their prohibitions, 
dispensations, and regulations, merely for the sake 
of amassing money ; they transfonned the world 
into a '^ den of abominations.'' 

A condensed summary of our principal objections 
against the Romish system of corrupted Christianity, 
shall close this catalogue. The Papal Hierarchy 
has no sanction or authority for its existence from 
the sacred volume ; but is clearly described and di- 
rectly condemned, by Daniel, Paul and John, from 
its evolution to its final tragic catastrophe. By its 
operation, the essential principles of individual reli- 
gion are demolished ; for it denies salvation to all 
Avho do not practice their superstitious ritual, ex- 
punges the right of private examination and judgment 
on religious topics ; it " prohibits liberty of mind, 
speech, writing and printing: it defends its dogmas 
hy chains, dungeons, racks and llames : it debases 
the soul and character of man : it is the i'o of educa- 
tion, science, improvement and reason: and it spi'eads 
over the whole frame of society, the net of cherished 
ignorance and abject submission"— combining the 
most solemn exterior of " sanctity, with crimes, the 
atrocity of which would make ev en a savage to shud- 
der;" and engendering the most obdurate and unim- 
pressiblc infidelity and irreligion. Absurd, perni- 
cious, and unscriptural doctrines are enjoined as ar- 
ticles of iliith, by the Beast ; who also enacts laws 
and ordinances, both of discipline and worship, by 
]iis own usurped authority; denouncing the irrevoca- 
ble anatlunna, and the torments of the everlasting 
abvss of y/o, upon all those who deny his assumed 
claims, and who refuse to submit to his unhallowed 
f.'ommanols and 2:overnmeirt. 



CENTURIES Ml— XVI. ^ I8i) 

We have already been reminded oi'some of these 
^niholy appointments — ecclesiastical oilicers ; the 
^canonization of the dead ; and the estabhshment oi' 
numerous foasts and fasls ; with a most tiresome cat- 
alogue of frivolous mummeries, all tending to insult 
reason and to burles(jue Christianity ! — ^Ve have al- 
so perceived that tiie importance, usefulness, and ne- 
cessity of divine revelation, are totally supersedej 
by the Papal traditions. Besides, the Roman Hier- 
archy encourages the vilest Despotism of every spcr 
cies ; for it prostrates reason and conscience, and 
consequently fosters the most absolute private and 
public tyranny. This is evinced by their excommu- 
iiications, auricular confessions, monastic institutions, 
the pretended rights of the church, and by their tre- 
mendous and ceaseless persecutions — the "Mother 
of Harlots is drunken v»ith the blood of the Saints, 
with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus.*' 

The whole system which we have thus briefly 
depicted, is therefore a manifestly audacious inno- 
vation on the religion of our Lord and Saviour Jesus 
fJhrist, and destructive of all our fundamental prin- 
ciples; which assert '^ the sole legislative authority 
and supremacy of Immanuel over the faith and the 
consciences of men; the unrestricted use of the sa- 
cred volume, and its sufficiency as the rule of reli- 
gious belief and obedience; and the unlawfulness 
of human dictation in matters purely belonging" to 
the salvation of the immortal §oul. 

After this cursory investigation of the constituent 
inaterials of the grand " falling away" predicted hy 
Paul, a>id our examination of the qualities of this 
•' man of sin, the son of perdition;" who can resist 
tlie sensibilities excited by the impresive comparison, 
which is exhibited between the countries degraded 
by his sway, and the lands w hich the beams of the 
Sun of Righteousness irradiate and cheer. Two 
devotional principles are hence enkindled in every 
heart, which is in any degree animated by Christ- 
ianity — gratitude and prayer. 



190 ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. LECTURE X. 

How thankful should we feel to that God in whom 
" we live, and move, and have our being," that our 
residence has not been determined by his providen- 
tial arrangements in the dominions of the Beast ! 
You will remember, that the Papal system bears now 
a very different exterior from its garb during the 
period which we have contemplated ; and especially 
in the Protestant countries where it exists, and is 
tolerated. Its grosser and more repulsive appenda- 
ges are necessarily banished from observation ; and 
yet in this respect, a wide diversity is discoverable 
between the Roman adherents in this Republic, and 
those who dwell amongst the Reformed in Europe. 
In the very nature and situation of things around us, 
with every prospect which the human mind can an- 
ticipate, it is almost impossible that the enormities 
of that departure from the living God, can attain 
any permanent or extensive influence in this Union. 
Notwithstanding this conviction, we know, that ma- 
ny instances have occurred in these states, in which 
the genuine character of the Beast has been devel- 
oped, in spite of ail the political and moral re- 
straints which confine him within very small limits. 
We, in reference to our social and national regula- 
tions upon ecclesiastical topics, display to the world 
a condition previously unknown in the history of 
mankind. The religion of Jesus Christ our Lord, 
is liberated from every fetter, disconnected from all 
terrestrial associations, and left to exert its own 
authority and energy, independent of goveniinent- 
al sanction and support. Within our precincts, no 
Pope fulminates, his Legate's anathemas are merely 
subjects of ridicule, no Dominican is armed witi^ 
inquisitorial prerogatives, no legalized murderer 
stands ready to complete an Auto daFe; and even 
a Jesuit's envenomed cunning, malevolence and vil- 
lainy, lind in our state of society, and the principles 
which govern it, a silent but perfectly efficacious 
antidote. Who can be suiliciejitly grateful for the 
light and the truth which wc es^joy, for the sacred 



CENT (J R IE S Vll.—XVh 19 i 

privileges which we experience ; and especially 
when we subjoin, that as far as mortal perspicacity 
^•an extent], perpetuity is inscribed upon the present 

ondition of our christian possessions ; with the su- 
per-addition, that they will continually multiply, 
in number, influence and expansion, until the morn- 
ing of that illustrious day, when "all the ends of 
the earth shall see the salvation of God.'' 

But if we do in some measure justly appreciate 
the value of our own immunllies; if we are in any 

legree capacitated to comprehend the wondrous 
contra it between the deluded devotees of the Beast, 
and the sincere enlightened followers of the Lamb 
of God; aiid if we exult with rapture in the prospect 
of that delightful millennium, when darkness and 
ignorance, infidelity and irreligion, superstition and 
idolatry shall all be seized by the Angel who shall 
'* come down from heaven, having the key of the 
bottomless pit and a great chain in his hand," and 
who shall lay '^ hold on the Dragon, that old serpent 
who is the Devil, and Satan," and shall bind these 

riliallowed destroyers of the peace of mankind with 
iheir Author " a thousand years, and cast him into 
I he bottomless pit, and shut him up, and set a seal 
upon hirn, that he shall deceive the nations no more^ 
till the thousand years shall be fulfdled ;'^ then w^e 
cannot need any argument to enforce the urgent 
necessity of those restless implorations, which shall 
ascend to ^^ the throne of grace by day and by night," 
that the great Head of the church would without 
delay, make •' Jerusalem the praise and the glory of 
ihe whole earth." 

That this felicitous universal reign of" the Prince 
of the Kitigs of the earth" is rapidly approaching, 
(he spirit of the times in which we live, undeniably 
prognosticates. ¥/e have seen that in the year of 
the Christian era, 534, Justinian proclaimed the 
Bishop of Rome Chief of all the churches upon eartn ; 
which in fact v/as one of the grand primary events 
that cojiduced to the establishment of the Papal 



19: 



FvO C L E S 1 A S T I ( ; \ I. li i S TO K " 



Hierarchy: add 1260 years to that period; and We' 
have a simultaneous rebellion against the aiitfiority 
of the Beast, not only in that political earthquake, 
tiie French Revolution; but in the general com- 
mencement of the monthly meeting for special pray- 
er, the organization of Missionary I nstititlions, 'rract 
and Bible Societies, and the great excitement amonf; 
ihe Protestants, which has produced that ceaseless 
exertion of Christian philanthropiiy, that explores 
every attainable district to disperse the treasure of 
the Gospel — and to proclaim the " glad liciings of 
great joy, Christ and him crucified to all people.'' 
in this holy employ, let us, every one without excep- 
tion, also participate; remembering tliat the God 
whom we invoke, is a God hearing prayer ; that no 
sounds are more acceptable in the court of heaven, 
than the devout, fervid, sincere petitions which in 
their object commingle the glory oflmmanuel, with 
the redemption of sinners; and that no duties hiore 
effectually promote our own peace, and growth m 
grace, than the quickening; effects of that charity 
which circumscribes within its sanctified sphere; 
the present evangelical consolations and harmony, 
and the future unalterable blessedness of n^yriads ot 
perishing sinners, destined to an immortality of ex- 
istence. Let us therefore ^* pray for ihe peace of 
Jerusalem;" and continually urge at his throne, the 
all-important and exhilarating supplications uttered 
by the Psalmist of old; "God be merciful unto us 
and bless us ; that thy way may be known upon earth, 
and thy saving health to all nations ; let the people 
praise thee, O God, let all the people praise thee ; 
God shall bless us, and all the ends of the earth shall 
fear him. Blessed be the Lord God of Israel, and 
let the whole earth be filled with his glorj^ — -Amen 
and Amen."". 



'I lie means Otj ichich the Papal apostacy was sustained. 



Althougii the system of corruption which we have 
portrayed was artful I j constructed to (Xei'y externa! 
assault, and combined within itself the materials 
calculated to maintain its existence with undiminish- 
ed energy, yet like all other terrestrial superstruc- 
tures, it was too frail to withstand the revolutions of 
time. It is a curious analogy, that the ancient Roman 
civil despotism was supported about the same period 
of duration, as prophecy declares, that the modern 
ecclesiastical tyranny shall triumph ; and as it com- 
prised the lapse of several generations from the pri- 
mary evolution of the Beast's features, until their 
complete display in the "Mystery of iniquity ;" so 
Ihree centuries have already revolved, and the de- 
inoiition of the Dragon's successor has not been con- 
summated. We are hence induced to inquire ; 
by Vf hat wondrous agency, a government so odious, 
irrational and mischievous, so derogatory to Jehovah, 
^\v\ BO debasing to man, during many hundreds of 
years, and nearly over the whole of Europe, could 
jiave been authoritatively founded and irresistibly 
established. It is obvious, from the delineation of 
its fundamental qualities; that although all its parts 
tended to promote its own stability, yet., so stu- 
pendous and extensive a mass of abominations in 
theory and practice must necessarily have demand- 
ed exterior assistance. 

Tlie deterioration of evangelical doctrine, the 
degeneracy of the moral standard, and the usurpa- 
tio!i of spiritual povvcr bv the ^' Man of sin," which 

A 2 



Idi ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. LECTURE Hi, 

are the ibree grand constituents of Popery were 
gradually developed. To illustrate this subject, it 
may be remarked in general, that when the Church 
of Christ had survived the tempests of Persecution, 
and enjoyed repose under Imperial patronage, earth- 
ly grandeur was desired by the Bishops, especiaJlj 
of the principal and metropolitan cities ; and it is 
said, that after Constantine had enriched the Clergy 
with such immense revenues, a voice was heard in 
the heavens, saying, " This day poison is poured into 
the Church ;"" whether this fact be true or not, that 
dread result has been exhibited. It has already 
been evinced, that ecclesiastical power and emolu- 
ment. With their concomitants, pride and volup- 
tuousness, were inseparably conjoined to the preva- 
lency of the Romish doctrines concerning Purgatory, 
Masses for the dead, Indulgences, Pardons, Taxes 
for sio, Jubilees, Absolutions, and all the other train 
of inventions by which this medley of craft, adapted 
to every kind of persons, was continued. Of the 
ignorance which constituted another cause of the 
rise, sway and progress of Babylon the great, unde- 
niable instances are upon record, which almost defy 
credibility, ¥/ith the demolition of the Western 
empire; the Arts, Sciences, and Languages were 
totally neglected. One of the Synods commanded the 
Clergy, who could not say, Domine miserere nostri, 
in Latin, to pray, Lord have mercy upon us, in their 
own language. Luther states, that at the period of 
the Reformation, the Arch-Bishop of Mentz, acci- 
dentally finding a Bible, after reading in it, declared, 
"I knov/not what this book is, but it is all against 
us:" and the great Reformer avers, that even he was 
twenty years old, prior to his perusal of the sacred 
Scriptures. 

The preference of Human traditions to the primi- 
tive rules and institutes of Christianity, involved an 
additional aid to the cause of Popery. One of the 
decisions of their Law is, that the Decretals of the 
Pope are of equal authority with inspired Revelation ; 



CENTURIES Vii.-- XVi. 1^0 

and it is a general opinion, that it is preferable to 
lose the law of God than the canons of the Pope. 
To sanctify the astonishing mumraerj contrived by 
the prime devotees of the Beast ; every possible 
cheat, fraud, falsehood and deceit were invented; 
fully exemplifying PauFs prediction; his "coming is 
after the working of Satan, with all power, and signs, 
and lying wonders, and with all deceivableness of 
unrighteousness"— -comprising feigned Revelations, 
counterfeit visions, suppositious and forged miracles, 
pretended relics and imaginary saints. " If the peo- 
ple will be deceived,'.' said one of the Cardinal 
Legates to the people who thronged to ask and re- 
ceive his blessing, when he was concerned for their 
silly devotion and bigotry, "in the name of God, let 
them be deceived." In fact, the Papal Apostacy 
originated partly in this source, and was perpetuat- 
ed by its energies ; — it was a combination, as them- 
selves attest, " of Forgery and Falsehood, Lies and 
Fiction, Impostures and Religious Juggles, Holy 
Cheats and pious Frauds." The four nails by which 
the gracious Redeemer was suspended on the cross, 
had incalculably multiplied. That Arch-Bishop of 
Mentz, who was totally ignorant of the existence even 
of the Gospel, boasted and pretended to exhibit, "the 
Flame of the Bush, which Moses beheld burning." 
in Holland they displayed for show " a leg of the Ass 
on which Christ rode into Jerusalem." At Isenach 
in Germany, Luther stateaj that he saw an image of 
the Virgin Mary with her child Jesus. When a 
wealthy person came thither to pray, the child mov- 
ed away his face from the sinner to his mother, as if 
he refused to hear his prayer; and the Suppliant 
applied to the Mother, to crave her mediation 
and intercession. If the person gave liberally, the 
child turned to him; and if he promised to increase 
his donation, then the child was very friendly and 
affectionate, and extended his arms to him in the 
figure of a cross. The Image was hollow; and behind 
it stood one of the monks who directed its motions ; 



l96 fciCCLESIASriC'AL lifKTORV'. tl^CTl'RK ^f. 

while the slupid votaries of the Idol coniided In its* 
approbation and displeasure, as llie supernatural 
eiiect oi' Divine providence, which declared the ^vill 
of God through the ifistrumeutality of this diabolical' 
Pageant. 1. 

One of the worst effects attached to the decep- 
tions practiced by the Papal Vvrlters, is the system 
which thej had consecrated ; not oidy to forge legen- 
dary tales, and constitutions, laws and canoni?, in 
the name of the Apostles and their immediate suc- 
cessors of the.'earliest Chrislian antiquity : but they al- 
so cancelled, adulterated, altered, and vitiated as far 
as was necessary to sanction their abominable tra- 
ditions, the various works of the ancient Authors, 
tlie copies of which escaped iVom the recesses of the 
Monasteries into the hands of mankind ; hence, it is 
often extremely diliicult to decide upon the genuine 
truth, and to distinguish it from fabulous impostur<^. 

Universality of proiession has long been the plea 
of the Papist in behalf of his an ti- christian system ;. 
yet in the authorized Popisli translation, this is the 
annotation on Revelation 13: 1. ''This Beast is the 
universal company of the wicked, whose head is 
Antichrist ; and the same is called Babylon.'^ But 
^- all the w^orld wondered after the Beast :*" so that 
the allegation, numbers and multitudes, by which it 
is attempted still tosustaiii the Papacy, is manifestly 
a proof, that the system of corruption denominated 
religion, which is at Iv.Rle, is tliat beast which 
••'goeth into perdition." 

The depression of the civil authorities and tlie su- 
premacy over ail the wSovereign powers within the 
dominions of the ten horns, were the grand machina- 
tions by wjiich the Dragon's Representative secured 
and maintained his exaltation. To the meanest 
ecclesiastical adherent of the Papacy, merely as 
such, was attached a dignity, superior to that of 
the most magnificent civil Potentate ; and as a regu- 
lar deduction from this rebellious dogma the Pope 

1 Appendix IX. 



(;EiS'T(JRit:s VII — XVI. i^/ 

decreed for them a total exemption from all jnrli-dii; - 
tion in i\\e common courts of judicature. One oflh.' 
arguments used to prove this position, "was derived 
from ilie Mosaic law, ^' thou shall not plow with an 
Ox and an Ass." Those in spiritual Orders were 
Oxen; while the Laity were Asses; and consequently, 
it was a degradation for a Father Confeseor to ac- 
knowledge his own criminalities before a teniporal 
tribunal. Hence, it is an autlioritative deeisioK 
jjiong the Papists, which has often been praclicalJy 
'^xempiiiicd, that " rebellion against the national 
pov/er, is not treason in a Popish Clergyman, be- 
cause he is not subject to its sway." However much 
circumstances oblige its partizans to conceal ilu-> 
a!\ti-social principle in modern ages; the doctrine i^; 
still maintained, and has been publicly asserted, 
even in this Union ; so that Popery is ever one and 
the same, an incurable pestilence to the world. — 
The old Puritan inference, drawn hy the early Re- 
formers, is therefore incontrovertible; that a tho- 
roughly bigoted Papist cannot be a good citizen, 
because he is bound by a foreign allegiance, para- 
mount to the claim and lavv^ of the land in which fie 
resides. 

The doctrine established by the Lateran Council 
in 1215, that Popes possess authority lo depose the 
executive authorities, to absolve the people from 
their oaths and obligations, to dispossess the civil 
.^(overnors of their oliices, and by force to subject 
the nations to tyrants of their own nomination ; has 
been often illustrated by actual example in the his- 
tory of the ten horns of the Beast. One modern 
instance is too impressive, not to be cursorily notic- 
ed. In the late Neapolitan attempt to obtain ^' the 
Rights of Man, it is probable, that the sam^e '^ ^-n-HoJy 
y\lliance," who had previously despoiled, devastated 
and dismembered Poland, would not so speedily 
and effectually have crushed the rising temple of 
Freedom, had not the intimidations and Bulls of the 
Tenant of the Vatican-, ^' the Beast who hath two 



198 ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. LECTURE XL 

horns like a lamb and who spake as a dragon,'' de- 
bilitated the energies and decomposed the unity of 

the patriots, bj rousing all their superstitious alarms 
of excomniunicatiori here, and bejond the grave, 
their dread of purgatory and wo everlasting. The 
mystery is not that Pius VIL should still blasphem- 
ously arrogate this attribute of the Godhead; but 
that a prolestant Monarch, a popish Emperor, and 
a Greek Tzar, a Trio naturally and essentially dis- 
cordant, should combine and claim the unhallowed 
co-operation of Satan's grand visible terrestrial vice- 
gerent, to consummate their schemes of despotism, 
and their opposition to the progressive melioration 
of the besotted devotees of the Anti-christian Apos- 
tacy, is an anomaly, which can be solved only by 
the recollection; that ambition transforms its desires 
into necessities, that Royalty sanctifies every 'crime 
however enormous, and that the variance between 
Herod and Pontius Pilate, could be removed only 
by the scorn and crucifixion of Immanuel. 

Nothing could be more agreeable and acceptable 
to the votaries of vice, than the Papal system in its 
actual operation. Heathen and Antichristian Rome 
were exactl}^ assimilated :— -the former was originally 
an asylum for outlaws, a refuge for Profligates, and 
the residence of ruffians; the latter was a sanctuary 
for the abmdoned of every possible class. The an- 
cient metropolis was built on fratricide for its corner 
stone, Romuhis having slain his brother, Remus ; and 
Popery v/as authoritatively erected upon the murder 
of the Emperor Mauritius — the usurper Phocas, who 
butchered the whole Imperial Family, expiated his 
aggravated iniquity by the establishment of the Man 
of Sin, as a commutation for his slaughter, and as a 
compensation for Papal absolution. 

It is evident from the history which will subse- 
quently be reviewed, that as the Roman Apostacy 
commenced in bloodshed and violence, so in a great 
degree it is indebted for its existence, to the same 
diabolical machinations. Like its sister imposture 



wENTURlES VII XVI. 199 

smented at Mi'cca, it has augmented its disciples, 
principally by force. The Arabian Apollyon employ- 
ed the sword and military co-ercion; lire and faggot 
^^'cre the instruments of conversion introduced by 
-him who sittelh in the temple of God, as God." 
Compulsion and cruelty have augmented the disci- 
ples of the western Antichrist; so that oaths, and cov- 
enants are phantoms, when their rage is to be exercis- 
ed up on a denounced Fleretic. Persecution is an es- 
sential characteristic of the papacy, and so revengeful 
is its temper, that if it can glut its revenge with blood, 
by no other means, it will exercise its carnivorous and 
iTisatsahlc appetite, even on its own deluded votaries; 
of whicli, the simultaneous murder of every French- 
man in the Island of Sicily, when the bells rang for e- 
vcoin«' prayers, afford a modern and memorable tes- 
timony. Hence it may be added, in the language of 
a late distinguished opponent of the Roman Hierar- 
chy, " he who can choose such a religion^ deserves to be 
within its grasp, that it may be his punishment, as 
well as his crime." 

One of tlie most inexplicable of all the inquiries 
connected with this subject, is, how men so scandal- 
ously outrageous and vile,* as was a large majority 
of the Popes, in fact, such proverbially profligate, 
profane, impious, lewd murderers, that they have no 
counterpart in society except among the Cardinals, 
and the chief retainers of the Apostacy ; could have 
been supported during so long a period ? One solu- 
tion only can be adduced— the universal degeneracy 
inchned all orders of the people "to embrace evil doc- 
trines, and to engage in false worship ;" while the ea- 
sy .commutation for their transgressions by means of 
;?,urico]ar confession, penance, and the tax for absolu- 
tion, united their energies to maintain a system, 
which indulged their vicious propensities to their 
widest range, and quieted their consciences by the 
guarantee of pardon, security and peace. 

In the more extended investigations of this period^ 
it is manifest that the most inimiced persoriS.j the-inor-t 



200 ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. LliK.iLUC II 

discordant purposes, and the most confiiciin^ evenift, 
bjthe ceaseless cunning, and artifices, and exertions 
ofihe Hierarchs and their agents, lost their contra- 
dictory qualities, and were amalgamated into one 
rnaciiine, whose perpetual motions invariably tended 
to th,e same object; the exaltation of the '•vlvian of 
Sin." Some of the digniiied orders of society suc- 
cumbed to the Papal claims from superstition ; others 
from servility; many from expediency, and liie ma- 
jority from terror, its long protracted elevation and 
supremacy, may also be partly attriboled to policy; 
*' Princes and Emperors, that they themselves might 
attain to more arbitrary sw^ay, suffered ttie clergy to 
use their liberty to an excess. They often needed 
their assistance, and found it necessary to indulge, 
and permit them to tyrannise in spiritual causes, that 
they miglit exercise temporal despotism ; until they 
could not restrain them from usurping the civil pow- 
er." But this connivance and aid would have been 
insufficient to fortify so stupendous an edifice of eve- 
ry diversified evil, which like the '* smoke out of the 
bottomless pit, darkened the sun and the air/' had 
not the forced and unnatural celibacy of the Priests, 
who were dispersed throughout the ten horns of the 
beast, embodied around the Pope, a universal and in- 
calci^lable army of inseparable adherents ; whose li- 
centiousness, luxury and pride could not otherwise 
have been satiated ; and had not these same Monks 
and Friars obtained paramount and irresistible in- 
fluence over all descriptions of the people, from the 
highest to the lowest, through each intermediate 
grade, by being the authorised depositories of every 
individual's character, secrets and reputation, in con- 
sequence of the information imparted at private con- 
fession. The grand stamina of the Romish Apostacy 
however, consisted in the facility with which the ma- 
jority of the people in the various nations imbibed 
those erroneous doctrines which sanctioned their de- 
praved inclinations, and in their attachment to that 
pompous ceremonial which rendered their supposi- 



CENTURIES Vli^— XVI. 201 

liaus devotions and sensual gratification. Like their 
ancestors they would have worshipped any Pageant 
exalted before them; '^ at what time the Chaldeans 
heard the sound of the cornet, flute, harp, sackbut, 
psaltery, dulcimer, and all kinds of music, they fell 
down and worshipped the image which wasset up ' by 
Nebuchadnezzar. Thus splendour and music excited 
the infatuation of the ignorant and seduced modern 
Babylonians; so that "all ranks and degreesof persons 
clubbed to support the Romish delusions ; and every 
one contributed his earnings, some more and some 
less, to manufacture this Golden Calf,'" 

But it is necessary to develope in their extensive 
ramifications, the more potent and eflicacious causes 
of that support by which the Beast attained and 
perpetuated the plenitude of his supremacy ; and 
they may all be classed under four general denomi- 
nations — Artifice — Terror-^Enthusiasm — and Persecu- 
tion. 

L Artifice. 

The temporal supremacy of the Popes originated 
in their adhesion to the image-worship, when that 
idolatry was opposed by all the imperial authority 
of Leo. That magnificent ceremonial established by 
the successors of Jupiter's devotees, so strongly 
attracted the attachment of the deluded multitudes, 
that they promised the " Man of Sin," all their sup- 
port, in discarding the government of the Constan- 
tinopolitan Emperor. To sanction this proceeding — 
after Pepin had murdered the king of France, he 
transferred to his sole independent jurisdiction, the 
domains in Italy which have since been considered 
the Pope's patrimony. 

By various frauds, increasing in impudence and 
number, as opposition to the papal authority display- 
ed itself; and by transforming every event into a 
coadjutor to their designs, they finally established 
their odious despotism. 

One of their manoeuvres, was a systematic inter- 
ference in all the political affairs of the different 

B 2 



202 ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. LECTURE XI. 

European kingdoms. The grand object of solicitude 
was, that the nations should continue in a ceaseless 
division and contention. The Roman Pontiff, all the 
discordant parties professed equally to revere, and 
to his interposition they all appealed. Hence, every 
emergency of this kind augmented his power ; and by 
rendering him in universal practice, the final Arbi- 
trator of all the royal disputes, the Potentates elevat- 
ed him, by their own admissions, to a dignity which 
far transcended their own; and this enveloped with 
all the spiritual majesty, with which ignorance and 
idolatry combined, had encircled God's terrestrial 
Vicegerent, as he was blasphemously denominated, 
evf itually rendered measures beyond the ingenuity 
an ] power of man to contrive, indispensible to his 
dernolitioa. As the Pope's favour became a grand 
object of strife, it was of course disposed of, as po- 
licy, avarice or ambition dictated. By this cunning, 
peace and war, national prosperity and adversity, 
equally promoted the vigour and perpetuity of the 
mystical Babylon. 

Nearly at the same period, during the ninth cen- 
tury, the whole ecclesiastical system in Europe, 
was changed ; both with respect to its interior and 
external administration. Constantine had maintained 
his uncontrouled authority in the principal topics 
connected with the order of the church ; and not- 
withstanding all the mutations and revolutions of 
four hundred years, including the irruptions and set- 
tlement of the Goths, Huns and Vandals, in all the 
countries of Europe ; Charlemange claimed and ex- 
ercised supreme jurisdiction concerning; the election 
of a Pope, and the inferior clerical appointments; 
and also with regard to the introduction of novelties 
into the ancient system. This power, however, the 
European kings gradually sacrificed, until the Pope 
had grasped the prerogative, to fill every official 
vacancy, not only without the approbation, but in 
direct contradiction to the various national govern- 
ments. 



CENTURIES VII XVI. 203 

Prior to this era, also, the Bishops possessed 
considerable influence in the regulation of the 
church, and their sanction had been pronounced 
necessary to authorize the adoption of a novel dog- 
ma, or a new ceremonial ; but this privilege, if not 
entirely abrogated, was so enfeebled, that the voice 
of these officers has subsequently been of little or no 
importance. In addition to this enlargement of the 
Papal controul, the councils, which had been either 
statedly or occasionally assembled in the provinces 
or nations, were disregarded, and the respect which 
had been offered to their decisions, declined; so 
that the only effectual barrier to the unrestrained 
exaltation of him '^ who sitteth in the Temple of God, 
as God," was completely extirpated. By these conti- 
nual accessions of authority, the Popes at length, 
havirsg become inflated with their prosperity, and 
arrogant beyond all measure, enjoined upon ail the 
devoted agents of the apostate Hierarchy, to pro- 
mulge the preposterous dotcrine, that the Bishop of 
Rome, was constituted by Jesus Christ, Supreme 
Governor, Legislator, and Judge of the universal 
church upon earth. To these usurpations, however 
zealously and ardently defended, great oppossition 
was excited by various learned persons, who were 
acquainted with the sacred scriptures, and with the 
primitive history of the church : notwithstanding, all 
their resistance was vain ; and it became necessary 
to invent some mode, by which so palpable a trans- 
formation of the ancient regimen might be defended. 
The blindness of the people assisted the design, and 
the absolute independence of the Roman Pontiff^ 
was the unavoidable consequence. A large number 
of the most ingenious and corrupt partizans of 
the papacy, were employed to forge public conven- 
tions, acts of councils, and decretal epistles, with 
similar records ; from which it might be infallibly de- 
monstrated, that in the Apostolic age, and from that 
period to the ninth century, without interruption, the 
Popes had always beea clothed with the same su- 



204 ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. LECTURE II 

preme spiritual majestj, as that in which they were 
then decorated. With the most ostentatious triumph 
these fictitious writings were adduced ; and tended 
in a high degree, especially the fabricated proceed- 
ings and decisions of a suppositious council, alleged 
to have been held during the fourth century, to 
enrich and aggrandize the papal Hierarchy. 

But whenever it appeared advisable to restore any 
ancient observance, which was adapted to sanctify 
the pretended right* of the Roman church, or to 
augment the dominion of its Pontiff, no scruple was 
admitted respecting its legality. Hence, those ec- 
clesiastical Councils which had in a great measure 
vanished from the other nations, were sometimes 
held at Rome, because there they could be trans- 
formed into a body, whose acts w ould only subserve 
the pontifical usurpations. By the operation of this 
sanction, all the spurious decretals, with every 
other fictitious monument and record necessary to 
consummate the design, were incorporated among 
the ecclesiastical laws. " The history of the follow- 
ing ages verifies, in a multitude of deplorable ex- 
amples, the disorders and calamities which sprung 
from the ambition of the aspiring Pontiffs ; by their 
impious frauds they overturned the ancient govern* 
ment of the church, undermined the episcopal au- 
thority, engrossed the revenues ; and by aiming 
perfidious blows at the thrones of princes, endea- 
voured to lesson their power, and to circumscribe 
their dominion ; until in the twelfth century, not on-^ 
ly the claim of sovereign terrestrial power was ad- 
vanced, but also assumed and exercised, by Pope 
Alexander 111. who erected Portugal, then a pro- 
vince, into a separate kingdom, and invested Alphon? 
so with all the dignity and external pomp of regal 
authority. 

IL Terror. 

The increasing gloom which the papa! system 
diffused through every district and department of the 
nominal church, sanctioned the introduction of every 



CENTURIES VII. XVI. 205 

absurdity, which could degrade or stultify the intel- 
lectual faculties. Among the Celtic nations, the 
Druids, their idolatrous Priests, had been excessively 
venerated, especially the chief, or arch-druid. The 
reverence which those barbarians had been accus- 
tomed to feel for their Pagan spiritual director, was 
easily transferred to the Roman pontiff, whom they 
regarded as his successor under the Gospel dis- 
pensation ; and the Beast perceiving the advantages 
which would result from the possession of the august 
prerogatives that his Heathen predecessor had 
enjoyed, produced a mass of ancient history, and a 
multitude of overwhelming arguments from the feign- 
ed religious authors, v/hich secured his title to these 
extraordinary acquisitions. 

That stupendous and horrible dogma, which filled 
all Europe, with war, rebellion and massacre, from 
age to age, originated in this druidical superstition. 
It was contended, notwithstanding all its shocking and 
pernicious tendencies, that all persons who were ex- 
cluded from the Romish communion, either by the Pon- 
tiff or any of the inferior Bishops, thereby forfeited, not 
only their civil rights and immunities as citizens, but 
also all title to the common claims of humanity. Seve- 
ral of the Emperors and Kings, were thus anathema- 
tized, which filled Europe with war and desolation. 

From the period when Constantine ruled, excom- 
munication from the church had been accompanied 
with many distressing results ; and particularly among 
the Barbarians, who had confided in the old Druids^ 
its effects were extremely appaling. The true origin 
of the extensive and horrid influence of the European 
and Papal excommunication, and the unnatural pow- 
er associated with it, must be imputed to this corrupt 
transfer from Paganism to Christianity. " Upon the 
pretended conversion of the uncultivated nations to 
the Gospel, these new and ignorant proselytes, con- 
founded the excommunication in use among chris- 
tians, with their own practice, which had been adop- 
ted b^ the Priests of their imaginary Gods, and be- 



206 ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. LECTURE XI. 

lieved them to be similar in nature and effect. The 
Roman Pontiffs were too artful not to encourage and 
countenance this error; and therefore employed eve- 
ry mean to gain credit to an opinion so well calculated 
to gratify their ambition, and to aggrandize the epis- 
copal order. Excommunicated persons indeed, had 
been considered in all places, objects of aversion to 
God and men ; but they were not divested of their 
civic rights, or of the common privileges of human na- 
ture ; much less were the kings or princes, on account 
of exclusion from the church, supposed to forfeit, on 
that account, their official stations and territories. 
But from the eighth century, in Europe, excommuni- 
cation acquired that infernal pre-eminence which dis- 
solved all connections; so that those who were ex- 
cluded from the communion of the church were de- 
graded to a level with the beasts. Under this horrif- 
ic sentence, the king, the ruler, the husband, the fa- 
ther, even the man, lost all their privileges, the affec- 
tions of society, and the claims of nature." What could 
resist a sentence thus consecrated, and supported by 
all the numbers, energies and arms of the national pow- 
€r and general combination ? 

It was not the actual horrors which visibly suc- 
ceeded the sentence of excommunication alone, that 
debased the mental and corporeal capacities of the 
people, but also the phantoms promulged respecting 
the fire of purgatory : these chained the terrified vic- 
tims of the Antichristian Despot in inextricable vas- 
galage. The apprehensions of eternal torment, of 
that worm which never dieth, were trifiing and evan- 
escent, contrasted with the momentous and perennial 
dread of that region of fire which was ever present 
(o their sensibilities and imaginations. The besotted 
crowds were instructed to believe, that from hell, 
deliverance at death would assuredly follow, provided 
they had purchased a sufficiency of prayer^ from the 
Priests, and had paid the desired commutation for 
the supererogatory works and intercession of the 
saintly patrons : but from the tortures of purgatory 



CENTURIES VII. XVI. 207 

it was impossible, under any pretext, to realize any 
exemption. The artifices which were displayed to 
enliven the acuteness of the public perception on 
this topic, almost defy credibility. All the public 
harangues were little more than delineations of this 
invisible country ; interspersed with the most ridicu- 
lous narratives, and with the most stupid pretended 
miracles, wrought, as they affirmed, by the Priests, to 
release the sufferers from their misery ; thus evincing 
the reality of that region, and developing their mys- 
terious influence and connection with that tremen- 
dous state of wo. 

///. Enthusiasm, 
The aberrations of the human mind from the evan- 
gelical standard, in consequence of the general des- 
titution of the scriptures, displayed themselves in a 
vast variety of absurdities and profligacy. Two spe- 
cies of infatuated mania were seized by the Hierarchg 
as capable of being advantageously employed by 
them to sustain their Babylonish superstructure. — 
One of them was early pressed into the service — the 
Monkish system. When this practice commenced, it 
was merely a flight into the desert, and a temporary 
abode in solitude, that the storms of malignant and 
insatiable persecution might be evaded, until they 
had dissipated their fury. But the cunning of the 
Pontiffs speedily perceived, that the monastic life and 
vows might with great facility become an irresistible 
engine to maintain their assumed supremacy. Erro- 
neous opinions respecting the superior sanctity of a 
life in celibacy, originally added to the recluses ; 
philosophical whimsies concerning the purer and 
more elevated spirituality of a life of retirement and 
contemplation, enlarged their numbers ; while the 
independence of the v^arious classes of Monks, the 
jurisdiction over whom in their several dioceses, had 
been taken from the respective Bishops by the Popes, 
rendered their lives one continued scene of sensual 
indulgence. To these may be added, the universal 
belief which prevailed, that the monastic order inr 



2i08 ECCLESIASTICAL H19T0RY. tECTURE Xl 

volved a peculiar and verj high degree of sanctifi* 
cation. 

Notwithstanding all the corruption which charac- 
terized the Convents and the Nunneries, they main- 
tained their ascendancy over the benighted multi- 
tudes ; and when we remember the ignorance even 
of all the adherents of the Monkish institutions, ex- 
cept the few chiefs of the Orders, and the compara- 
tively small number of the initiated Agents, who 
Secretly propelled the main spring of the machinery, 
we cannot be surprized, that those who were induced 
to commingle all that was dignified and delighttul in 
this world, with the Pope's passport to Heaven, as 
the only guarantee of joy in the world to come, 
should have enthusiastically yielded themselves to 
the support of a religion so highly esteemed, so ea- 
sily fulfilled, that admitted every vicious indulgence 
for money, and which insured an entrance into the 
kingdom of heaven to all who could purchase the 
preliminary papal absolution. 

But one of the most astonishing proofs of the lia- 
bility of the human mind to be led astray by a sudden 
fantastic excitement, is discoverable in the history 
of the croisades, which most powerfully assisted the 
Papal supremacy. After the Mohammedans, dur- 
ing a long period, had retained pacific possession of 
the Eastern part of the Roman empire ; about the year 
1000 of the christian era, a plan was formed to reco- 
Ter the ancient land of Judea, from the Mussulmen. 
It was declared reproachful to the christian nations, 
that the enemies of the cross should rule over the 
country hallowed by the birth, ministry, passion, and 
triumph of Immanuel : and it was pronounced just and 
necessary in the professors of Christianity, to retort 
upon the Arabian scorpion locusts, the reproach, in- 
juries, persecution, and calamities with which the 
professed believers in Jesus had been tortured by 
their Apostate conquerors. Accordingly, an attempt 
Was made by Sylvester Pope, at the close of the tentk 
cfentury, to inflame the European nations against the 



CfiNTtJRIES Vli. XVI. 209 

Mohammedans ; but at that period, the effort ^vas nu- 
gatory. Afterwards, Gregory, probably the most 
audacious tyrant who ever ruled either in church or 
state, resolved in person to conduct a war for the ex- 
tension of the Roman church in Asia. Political oc- 
currences having forced him to postpone the execu- 
tion of his deBig;j,it remained dormant until ihe year 
1093, when all Europe was almost instantaneously e- 
lectrified to the utmost elevation of eiithusiastic rage, 
hy the preaching and exertions of Peter the Hermit, 
He had witnessed with anguish unutterable, the a-^ 
gonies and indignities to which the pilgrims who visit- 
ed Jerusalem were continually subject. On his re- 
turn to Constantinople, he had invoked, ineffectually 
the interference of the Patriarch there, and at Rome 
of Urban then Pope. Instead of feeling any discour- 
agement at their repulses, he began to peregrinate 
all the countries of Euj'ope, inciting a holy war 
against the infidels ; and pretending to exhibit a 
letter from heaven, addressed to all true Christians, 
to deliver their brethren, galled by Mohammedan 
oppressions. Thus was formed and prepared, the 
bold and apparently impracticable design, to con- 
duct into Asia, from the utmost western extremities, 
a force sufficient to extirpate and for ever exclude 
the devotees of the Impostor of Mecca from the 
Holy Land. 

When the epidemic madness thus excited, had 
raged during a short season, and a universal, simul- 
taneous and most vehement desire was exhibited for 
the coLiquest of Palestine, and the carnage of its Infi- 
del inhabitants. Urban the Pope, discovering that 
all the materials Were ready prepared for the long 
meditated expedition, assembled at Placentia, in 
1095, a council consisting of more than three hundred 
thousand persons ; on which occasion. Urban and 
Peter endeavoured with all their zeal and ingenuity 
to excite the multitudes to the conflict. After a 
short interval, a second and more numerous assem- 
bly was held at Clermont, which included a large 

C2 



210 ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. LECTURE XL 

proportion of the princes, prelates and nobles, resi- 
dent within the ten horns of the Beast. Urban and 
the Hermit here renewed (heir inflammatory appeals 
to the infuriated passions of the people, until at 
length the whole assembly, as if impelled by an irre- 
sistible superintendence, exclaimed, "It is the will 
of God!" These words became afterwards the signal 
©f battle, while the cross was the distinctive badge, 
which every volunteer in the cause wore, both for 
his ornament and protection. 

Ignorance and superstition- at this period, were so 
profound, that aided by the private military spirit 
which was universally extended, "all Europe was 
torn from its foundation, and seemed ready to preci- 
pitate itself in one united body upon Asia." The dis- 
contented nobles, the oppressed artizans, the impov- 
erished peasants, and the restless monks, all enrolled 
themselves for this service; to decline which was infa- 
my, being branded as cowardly and impious. A con- 
siderable proportion of the most valuable European 
possessions, lands, houses, gold and silver, was trans- 
ferred to the church, either as bequests in case of 
death, or as a commntatation for the pardon and gua- 
rantee of heaven, which the Pope and his agents 
assured to all^ who died during the croisade. " Old 
and young, men and women, priests and soldiers, 
monks and merchants^ peasants and mechanics, all 
eagerly assume the cross, as an expiation for alt 
crimes." Finally, all the preparatory arrangements 
having been completed, a motley half crazy multitude 
of enthusiastic bigots, calculated to number 300,000 
men, commenced their desolating pilgrimage, " dur- 
ing the course of which the most enormous disorders 
were committed by men inured to wickedness, en- 
couraged by example and impelled by necessity." — 
These commanded by Peter the Hermit, proceeded 
towards Constantinople ; and trusting to Heaven for 
supernatural supplies, as they had made no provision:- 
for their subsistence on their route, " were finally 
cxbliged to obtain by plunder, that which they vainly 



CENTURIES VII ^XVI. 211 

expected from a ceaseless miracle ;" this conduct 
enraged the inhabitants of the different countries 
through which they travelled, until they eventually 
assailed the disorderly Hcentious multitude, and 
slc:ijghtered them almost without resistance. The 
more disciplined forces followed : and having passed 
the straits of Constantinople, united with the others, 
and encamped on the plains of Asia, an army of 
700,000 croisading warriors. 

The rage for the conquest of the Holy Land did 
not cease with this expedition : it continued during 
nearly two centuries, and involved eight successive 
croisades. Not less than two millions of people are 
calculated to have perished in these various attempts 
to overthrow the Mohammedans in Judea. 

The conduct which these Croisaders exhibited, 
must unavoidably have ruined even the best cause. 
They were ia one ceaseles internal feud and 
dissension ; and " the horrid cruelties which they 
committed must have inspired the Turks with the 
most invincible hatred," and rendered their resist- 
ance most furiously obstinate. When Jerusalem 
was captured, all the inhabitants of both sexes and 
every ago, were massacred without mercy and 
without distinction. Barbarians inflamed with reli- 
gious enthusiasm alone, could have acted like them. 
After this terrible slaughter, " they marched over 
heaps of dead bodies towards the holy sepulchre, 
and while their hands were polluted w^th innocent 
blood, sung Anthems to the Prince of Peace ; and 
their infatuation overcame their fury, for these fero- 
cious victors wept aloud before the suppositious tomb 
of the Redeemer of Mankind. But in 1204, still 
greater absurdity and wickedness were displayed. 
The croisading frenzy infected the children, thou- 
sands of whom were conducted from the houses of 
the parents, of whom a part perished in the utmost 
misery, and the rest were sold by their pretended 
guardians as slaves to the Mohammedans. 

Notwithstanding all the aggrandizement which the 



212 ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. LECTURE ST. 

Hierarchy received from the transfer of their weahh, 
which the dehided Hosts confided either to the pro- 
tection or the support of their spiritual Despots; 
and although in the plenitude of its dominion, nothing 
appeared capable of diminishing its boundless sway, 
yet the result of the croisades after the final expul- 
sion of the Europeans and their descendants from 
Syria, by the capture of Acre, was in many respects 
favourable to the western nations. The Arabians of 
that period, were much more refined and polished in 
their manners, and were surrounded with a high de- 
gree of magnificence in their style of living, when con- 
trasted with the degraded and impoverished mode 
of existence, at that period, general throughout 
Europe ; and from this era, may be dated a consi- 
derable improvement in the character and condition 
of the inhabitants of the Imperial ten horns; as those 
who fled back to their original residences had im- 
bibed a taste which emulated the splendour of the 
Easterns, by whom their temporary predominance, 
in Palestine was finally extirpated. 
IV, Persecution. 
An enlarged detail of the various cruelties perpe- 
trated through the instrumentality of this Papal de- 
termination to possess Supreme terrestrial jurisdic- 
tion would combine a considerable proportion of the 
European history during three centuries. Although 
from the establishment of the '^ Man of Sin," the wit- 
nesses comnienced and prolonged their prophesyingin 
sackcloth, yet the doctrine had not been widely pro- 
mulged or generally practiced, that it was lawful or 
evangelical, to destroy human life for a rejection of 
the Romish traditions. " Persecution is the spirit of 
Popery;" but at that period it had been encompassed 
by restraints, of which even all the domineering prin- 
ciples of the haughty Pontiffs did not venture to at- 
tempt the demolition. But from about the year 1200^ 
when Gregory had centered in the Pope an unlimited 
and almost undisputed prerogative to dethrone Em-, 
perors, dispossess Kings, banish Princes, and degrade 



CENTURIES VII XVI. 213 

Prelates; when the hardships of the papal usurpationB 
were more acutely realized, and the odious charac- 
teristics of the Roman Beast were developed in all 
their debasing, vindictive, and appalling qualities; 
a large and extensively diffused augmentation to the 
numbers, piety and learning of the opponents of the 
Romish apostacy almost simultaneously was mani^ 
fested. It was determined therefore if possible, to 
crush the impending audacity, which would dare to. 
trample upon the Beast's authority. 

Two measures were eventually adopted, to silence 
all present murmurers, and to terrify others from 
all future commotion. " Christians did not always 
assume the badge of the cross to annihilate infidels: 
the madness of Bigoiry, and the spirit of persecu- 
tion" produced a croisade for the destruction of the 
servants of Jesus. In the southern provinces of 
France, particularly, resided considerable multi- 
tudes of persons who had become very obnoxious to 
the Popish church and clergy, on account of their 
aversion, from the prevalent doctrinal errors, and the 
universal ambition of those who filled the ecclesiasti- 
cal orders; and at length, they refused toacknowledge 
as ministers of the holy religion of Immanuel, men 
totally destitute of humility, meekness, self-denial 
and philanthrophy. Innocent III. Pope in the earlier 
part of iLe thirteenth century, alarmed at their prin» 
ciples and opposition to his claims, with that of the 
subordinate papal adherents, resolved to extirpate 
them by force, or convert them by intimidation. A 
croisade was proclaimed, indulgences granted, par- 
dons issued, absolutions distributed and Heaven pro- 
mised to all who would engage in the execrable de- 
sign: by these means a very formidable army was mar- 
shalled. The innocent Albigenses, Waldenses, and 
their Associates, by whatever denomination they 
were known, were pursued by their insatiably cruel 
persecutors, and myriads expired by the swords of 
these blood-houi)ds. Their cities were pillaged and 
razed, their inhabitants were butchered with all the 



214 ECGLESIASTIC^L HISTORY. LECTURE Xf. 

insensibility of those who were so benighted as to be- 
lieve, that in martyring those "of whom the world was 
not worthy," they were really doing God service ; for 
the besotted Priests like incendiaries, generally com- 
menced the work of devastation by enkindling the 
conflagration in which the towns and villages were 
consumed. The infernal fury that prevailed on those 
occasions, may easily be estimated, from one instance 
which occurred during this holy war. When the 
city of Beziers was taken, among the Waldenses 
was a number of persons, most devoutly and ina- 
lienably united to the papacy. At that capture, 
sixty thousand inhabitants were upon one occasion 
put to the sword ; some who commanded were desi- 
rous to spare the true Sons of the Church who had 
resided among the enemies of " the Man of Sin;'' 
but his holiness'' Legate fired with zeal for the 
mother church, cried out, " kill them all ! for the 
Lord knoweth them who are his.'^^ 

During these "great tribulations," it is suppos- 
i$d that at least one million of Waldenses were 
slaughtered in France alone : " when exquisite 
punishments availed little, and the evil was exaspe- 
rated by the remedy which had been unseasonably 
applied, and their number increased daily, at length 
complete armies were raised against them ; the 
event of which was, they were slain, put to flight, 
despoiled of their goods and dignities, and dispersed 
into all countries, but not convinced. The scatter- 
ing of these people only diffused their faith; which 
afterwards appeared in Switzerland, Bohemia and 
Britain. 

But it was speedily discovered, that the power of 
an armed force, embodied in military array, was to- 
tally insufficient to exterminate the light v^^hich was 
so rapidly and secretly diflfusing on the subject of the 
Pope's genuine claim to the character of Antichrist. 
Armies could depopulate towns and villages, but 
could not easily enter into that minuteness of scruti- 
ny, which investigated every householder's library 



CENTURIES VII. XVL 215 

SivA heart A. new machine was therefore invented, 
which should not only coerce the bodies, but also 
enslave the souls of men. The persons who began 
to dissent from the Romish superstitions were dis- 
persed in several parts of Europe, and much as they 
differed from each other on many other points of the-^ 
ology, yet on one topic they were altogether unani- 
mous, and similarly defended their system by argu- 
ments deduced from the sacred scriptures. They all 
promulged '' that the public and established religion 
was a motley system of errors and super&tition ; and 
that the dominion which the Popes had usurped over 
christians, as also the authority which they exercised 
in religious matters, were unlawful and tyrannical." 
Raymond, of Thoulouse, and other independent no- 
bles, encouraged these dissenters from the church 
of Rome ; until Innocent authorised some of the 
Monkish rabble, amoiig whom was the famous Dom- 
inic, " to extirpate heresy, in all its various forms 
and modifications, without being at all scrupulous in 
the use of any methods which might be necesary to 
effect this salutary purpose. These persons were as- 
sisted by that innumerable swarm of vermin, the men- 
dicant Friars, who, like the Egyptian frogs, "came into 
the houses, and bedchambers, and ovens, and knead- 
ing troughs" of all the people. To these Monks were 
allowed every possible privilege, to travel according 
to inchnation, to converse with all persons, to instruct 
in every place, and in fine, by their sanctimonious 
exterior, they so imposed upon all orders of men, and 
so hi2:hly were they venerated, that to wear a part 
of a Friar's rejected wardrobe, or to be interred in 
a Mendicant's cemetery, was the highest object of 
universal solicitude ; until their influence became so 
irresistible, that scarcely a transaction, from the 
Prince's council on national affairs, through every 
ramification of society, even to a beggar's extreme 
unction, escaped their personal notice and particular 
interference. Of these every-where present support- 
ers of the Roman Pontiff^'s authority, which they de- 



216 ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. LECTURE tl. 

monstrated against all civil potentates, and against 
all the inferior orders of the Hierarchy, with incredi- 
ble ardour and obstinacy, and astonishing success, 
four tribes existed ; the Dominicans, thus denominat- 
ed from Dominic ; the Franciscans, from Francis ; the 
Carmelites, who pretended to be successors of Elijah, 
who prophesied on Mount Carmel ; and the Augustin- 
ians, who were nominal adherents of Augustine. A- 
gainst these Mendicants, many persons offered their 
arguments and their expositions of scripture, but in 
vain; the Pontifical supremacy defied all opposition, 
and until the Reformation by Luther, they remained 
uncontested Masters of all Europe ; desolating this 
world by their intrigues and ambition, and depopulate 
ing heaven by their errors and abominations. 

After Dominic had commenced his exterminating 
system, it was ascertained to be so profitable ; that a 
general system of religious espionage, the Inquisitio7i^ 
became the object of fond attachment. But Irom the 
earliest period, the people displayed a formidable 
opposition to a contrivance which committed the re- 
putation, property, liberty, and life, not only of the 
father and husband, but also of the mother and wife 
and children, to the third and fourth generation, to 
the jurisdiction of a tribunal, always secret, invariably 
unjust, and ever murderous. The Pontifical supre- 
cy was, notwithstanding so vast, that it was finally de- 
termined, " a council of inquisitors, consisting of one 
Priest, and three laymen," shall be erected in every cu 
iy. These " heresy-hunters''' were bound by oath. " not 
only to seek for heretics in towns, houses, cellars, and 
other secret places, but also in fields, woods, caves, 
&c. Thus commenced the mfamous Inquisition, which 
was instrumental in destroying such myriads of Here- 
tics, some by terror, lor grace divine alone could 
withstand the diabolical ingenuity of their torments j 
and the majority by fire, being transported, it may be 
evangelically hoped, to that world of joy, of which 
the Lord of life and glory had said " where^^am, there 
shall my servant be." 



CENTURIES VII XVL 217 

The Inquisition, thus sanctioned by all the spiritual 
terrors oi the Papacy, and by all the arms of the 
national Governors, was eventually established as 
an infallible Judicatory; of course, its power was 
resistless, and its cruelties, for it manufactured every 
possible instrument to torture, most horrific. These 
courts ordinarily comprized three Inquisitors: query, 
as the quorum of many ecclesiastical Protestant tri- 
bunals consists of '• three Lords of the Inquisition ;" 
were their number and their practice derived from 
the same source and bull? — the Inquisitors were 
absolute judges, from whose decision, no appeal 
on earth existed ; but this, as it precluded all 
hope, did not torment the falsely accused delinquents 
with expectation of subsequent deliverance. That 
we may in some measure comprehend the odious 
nature of this infernal invention, listen to a summary 
of its proceedings. The Lords of the Inquisition 
directed a class of persons called Qualificators^ who 
by order of their masters, examined the crimes of their 
prisoners; with them were united Familiars, who 
were solely occupied in searching for culprits. All 
complaints were secret, and condemnation almost 
uniformly succeeded the accusation. The supposed 
offender was generally seized at midnight; and 
all the bonds of relationship, all the claims of huma- 
nity expired, when they became the subjects of that 
infuriated bigotry which swayed this tremendous 
tribunal. No intimation was ever given of the party 
who adduced the charge ; and a denial insured, 
either the highest degree of intimidation by the exhi- 
bitions of the torture, or the most exquisite lacera- 
tion and torment actually inflicted ; all intended to 
coerce the individual to acknowledge that guilt, 
which would then apparently justify the barbarity of 
those punishments, that followed the definitive judg- 
ment to the fire, which these human Monsters pro- 
nounced. 

Wealth, " booty and beauty*' constituted the grand 
recommendations to inquisitorial inspection, Pov- 

2 D 



218 ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. LECTURE XL 

erty and ugliness had no charms for those voluptu- 
aries ; and if ever they formed a part of an Auto 
da Fe, an act of Faith, the title desecrated by their 
merciless conflagrations and ignominious displays, 
it was merely a hypocritical mask, to conceal their 
vast confiscations ; and their galaxy of confined fe- 
male youth, first by fright, induced to submit to the 
Inquisitors' caresses, and then murdered after con- 
cupiscence was satiated. If terror, or pain, or men- 
tal debility, arising from the agonies which the 
wretched prisoners had experienced, or promises 
of deliverance and life had seduced the miserable 
creatures into a confession of the criminalities -al- 
leged against them ; immediately, the suppositious 
culprits were adjudged, with great ceremony, to be 
delivered over to Satan, throtigh the medium of pre- 
vious racking, and subsequent exterior odious dis- 
guise, decapitation and fire. In short, no tongue 
can detail, no mind imagine, and no heart even feel, 
the tremendous horrors which dw^elt within the walls' 
of Dominic. 

This despotic and sanguinary tribunal, however, 
excited the revengeful tempers of many persons, and 
in some parts of the Beast's dominions it was found 
impracticable to introduce its abominations. " Con- 
rad, the first German Inquisitor, was a victim of 
that wTath, which his merciless measures" had rous- 
ed ; and the " Lords of the holy Inquisition" often 
experienced exact retaliation from the resentment 
of the oppressed multitudes. "But so resolutely 
determined was the Popedom upon universal domi- 
nation, and so exasperated at the smallest exhibition 
of resistance to its usurped authority, that no mea- 
sure v/as neglected which could enforce its claims, 
and sanctify its jurisdiction, and establish its power." 
The Mendicant Friars^ dispersed in every city, 
town and hamlet, were continually on the alert, to 
discover heretical and disaffected persons ; and as- 
similated to their master, Satan, they assumed eve- 
Tj possible shape to execute their abominable em- 



CENTURIES VII. XVI. 219 

ployment. At one period, they were like ravening 
wolves, prowling into every house, to complete the 
malignity of that adversary, Abaddon, who '^ as a 
roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may 
devour." Anon, they were transformed into Angels of 
light, seducing where they could not terrify ; and by 
every artifice endeavoring to persuade persons of 
their own discontent with the Hierarchy, that they 
might receive some acknowledgement of similarity of 
feeling and opinion ; on which to transmit an accusa- 
tion to the Dominican demons incarnate, who con- 
trived the compound execrable mysteries, which filled 
the gloomy vaults of the Inquisition, with groans and 
every mortal wo, and the upper rooms with agony and 
pollution. So keen were their perceptions, that not 
only a word, which dishonoured the Inquisitors or the 
system, became the signal of proscription ; but cer- 
tain appearances ot the countenance were represent- 
ed as infallible indications of the mind and heart; 
and he who could not exult in the murder of his Fa- 
ther, or Child, or Brother, or in the rape of his Wife, or 
Mother, or Sister, was suspected, apprehended, and 
if not himself transferred as fuel for the combustion. 
was most assuredly and irreparably ruined, especial- 
ly if he was known to be opulent. But it is still more 
astonishing, that many of the civil Rulers should, in 
their various countries, have permitted the Inquisition 
to erect a tribunal, and to prepare instruments of tor- 
ture and death, not only independent of the national 
jurisdiction, but paramount to all law, and whose in- 
conceivable barbarities, the Princes ol Europe, when 
they were crowned, solemnly obliged themselves by 
oath to execute. This eventually constituted a per- 
manent croisade; so that from the commencement 
of the thirteenth century, until " the ever-blessed 
Reformation," all the horrors of the first ages were re- 
newed; and the wretched Waldenses, Albigenses, 
Leonists, Lollards, and the other genuine christians, 
by whatever epithet distinguished, realized the same 
fate, from " the Man of Sin," and his subordinate 



220 ECeLESIASTICAL HISTORY. B.ECTURE Xi. 

agents, ecclesiastical councils, and tm-^'Holy Lords 
of the Inquisition," which the primitive Christians 
had experienced from Nero, Domitian, Trajan, Ga- 
ierius, Dioclesian, and the other Imperial Roman 
Barbarians who had issued their various edicts to 
exterminate the terrestrial kingdom of our Lord and 
Saviour Jesus Christ. 

We have thus briefly investigated the most osten- 
sible causes, which combined to perpetuate that stu- 
pendous despotism, Popery. In 'the history of our 
mundane affairs, who can avmd feeliDg rapture in the 
prophetical contemplation, that the period is rapidly 
approaching, when this mountain of corruption shall 
disappear from the world; who ought not to rejoice, 
that she who '^saithin her heart, I sit a queen, and 
am no widow, and shall see no sorrow," shall be ut- 
terly destroyed. John saw the " mighty angel who 
took up a stone like a great mill-stone, and cast it in- 
to the sea, saying; Thus with violence shall that great 
city, Babylon be thrown down, and shall be found no 
more at all: and the voice of harpers and musicians, 
and pipers, and trumpeters shall be heard no more at 
all in thee; and no craftsman of whatsoever craft he 
be, shall be found any more in thee; and the light of 
a candle shall shine no more at all in thee ; and the 
voice of the bridegroom and of the bride, shall be 
heard no more at all in thee ; for in her was found the 
blood of prophets, and of saints, and of all that were 
slain upon the earth." Let us not by fictitious sensi- 
bilities, attempt to sympathize with a system of incur- 
able depravity ! When we oppose the Romish pesti- 
lence and Apostacy, we are only contending against 
a contrivance, which is derogatory to God, and de- 
gradation to the human family ; which tyrannizes with 
divine assumptions, over the bodies and souls, and 
brutalizes all the faculties of men. But all the arti- 
fices which the Friars contrived, all the terrors which 
the Inquisition circulated, all the delusions which 
the adherents of the Beast promulged, and all the 
tortures which general military ravage, and more 



individualized perseciution could disseminate, fey the 
superintending providence of God, were rendered 
instrumental to the birth and growth of that spirit 
of resistance, which burst forth in all its forceful 
ebullitions, when the third Angel cried " with a loud 
voice, if any man worship the beast and his image, 
and receive his mark in his forehead, or in his hand, 
the same shall drink of the wine of the wrath of 
God, and the smoke of their torment ascendeth up 
for ever and ever." 

Righteously, therefore, does every christian feel 
alarm at the resuscitation of a system, which former- 
ly covered Europe with gross darkness, and filled 
it with misery and vice. That within the Protest- 
ant portion of the ten horns of the Beast, the Papal 
cause is increasing, admits of no doubt ; and no other 
mode to counteract it apparently exists, but the tu- 
ition of youth in elementary knowledge, and the 
dissemination of the sacred volume by means of the 
Missionaries. 

But from this review, we may derive some valua- 
ble instruction. How great is our privilege, that we 
d well in a land, the illumination of which renders all 
Jesuitical machinations to delude us, ineffectual ! — 
How vast our obligations to the great head of the 
church, who has delivered us from the dread of Pa- 
pal excommunication, and the mysterious horrors of 
that Purgatory, which diminished all the energies of 
mankind, and which peopled the aerial regions and 
the dormitories of the dead, with the most terrific 
spectres ever present, and ever inimical ! — How su- 
perior is our allotment ! a crazy enthusiastic Monk 
cannot now subvert the foundations of human society, 
that a fiend-like despot may be aggrandized to god- 
like pre-eminence. How enrapturing the thought ; 
that ere long, neither the Russian with his Knout, 
shall trammel man within his superstitious absurdi- 
ties ; nor shall a Turk with his Bastinado, bow him to 
profess the delusions of Mohammed's apostacy ; nor 
shall a Spanish Inquisitor, while he racks vitality 



222 ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORYc LECTURE Xli 

from the heart, extort blasphemy from the mouth ! 
Their arms shall be withered for ever ; and the great 
multitude shall all combine in the extatic chorus, 
'' Alleluia ; for the Lord God omnipotent reigneth." 
Amen. 



The two witnesses who prophesy^ ^^ clothed in sackcloth^^--^ 
and the events which produced " the ever-blessed Reform" 
ation,^^ 



Connected with the establishment, progress, and 
final overthrow of the apostate Hierarchy, contrived 
by the " Man of Sin ;" John in Patmos beheld the 
characteristic features of the witnesses who should 
commence their prophetical opposition to the Papal 
perversions of evangelic truth, almost simultaneously 
with the Consummate evolution of this appalling 
despotism. The prediction recorded in the Apoca^ 
lypse 11 : 1 — 14^ is a condensed harrative of the suc- 
cessive testimony, which in all ages has been promulg- 
ed, with various energy, against the enemies of the 
Unadulterated gospel of Jesus. It has been already 
intimated that the mystical number 666 can be appli- 
ed to nothing but the Latin church ; and it is not a 
little remarkable that Irenaeus, the disciple of Poly- 
carp, nearly 500 years prior to the developement of 
this congeries of abominations, concluded from his 
scriptural researches, through divine illumination, 
that Rome would be the seat of the Beast. This is a 
plain, complete, and the only applicable exposition of 
the subject, which proceeds from the very earliest 
antiquity ; for Irenaeus affirms, that this was the deci- 
sion of them who saw and conversed with the beloved 
Apostle; and consequently it is not improbable, that 
he was permitted to communicate this interpretation 
on his infallible authority, that the fulfilment of the 
prophecy in subsequent ages, might render the facts 
connected with it more remarkable. One public cir- 
cumstance, the Papal ordinance, that all the services 
of the church should be in the Latin tongue, which 



224 ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. LECTURE XII 

was authoritatively promulged in the year 666, seems 
to determine with undeniable accuracy the applica- 
tion of the mystery. 

In addition to this authenticated event, the ap- 
pearance of a regular dissent from the exactions and 
mandates of the Roman ecclesiastical tyranny, cannot 
be traced to a more distant period, than the era, 
when the worship of God, through the universal ban- 
ishment of the vernacular languages, became a mix- 
ture of unmeaning incomprehensible gibberish, and of 
solemn ceremonial mummery. To illustrate the na- 
ture of that prophecy which the witnesses pronounc- 
ed against Babylon the Great ; and to mark the dif- 
ferent periods of their manifestation — they may be 
divided into two classes ; individuals, and societies. 
/. Individuals. 

The controversy respecting Images, it has been 
already evinced, produced a vast protest against the 
Romish idolatrous bulls. Emperors, Councils, and 
a large number of Prelates dispersed in their various 
dioceses, endeavoured to resist the introduction of 
this Pagan corruption ; but in vain ; the Dragon and 
the Beast eventually triumphed. Clement and Sam- 
son, two Culdees in Scotland, were excommunicated, 
for their aversion from the Pope's supremacy, Image 
worship, Masses, and the Celibacy of the Priests. 
After these, arose Bede, in England, who displayed 
the Romish corruptions with great boldness and ani- 
mation. Alcuin, in France, in consequence of his 
detestation of Idolatry, and his resolute irrefutable 
arguments against that monstrous fiction, Transub- 
stantiation, was arraigned several years after his 
death, and branded as a Heretic. Agobard in France, 
also stedfastly resisted the introduction of the Images, 
and as a consequence, his writings were condemned 
to the flames. Claudius, in Italy, vehemently de- 
fended the truth against the Pagan Christians ; and, 
through the divine benediction, so successful were 
his labors, that it is probable the seed which he 
strewed, afterwards sprung up among the valleys of 



■'CENTURIES vn~~^vi. 225 

Piedmont, and produced that abundant liarvest of 
Christians, the immortal ^Valdenses. 

In the ninth century, John Scotus, for his acute 
resistance to the introduction of the Papal corrup- 
tions, was murdered in England by his own Students 
when instructing them at Oxford. Bertram in France, 
and Maurus in Germany, fearlessly but without suc- 
cess, also wielded '-the sword of the spirit which is 
ihG ^vord of God" against '' the son of perdition." 
Haymo an Anglo-Saxon, Fortunatus and Hulderic 
Germans, Lupus and Remigius Italians, and especi- 
ally Hincn)ar, openly defied the Pope, and trampled 
with scorn upon his bulls and decretals. 

Of the tenth century, scarcely a vestige remains ; 
the Papal advocates describe this period, '^ as the 
most debauched and wicked, the most illiterate and 
ignorant since the coming of Christ ; the Popes 
during 150 years were more like Apostates than 
Apostles. Christ then appeared to be in a very deep 
slumber w^hen the ship was covered with waves ; 
and disciples were wanting, who by their cries 
might awaken him, being themselves all fast asleep." 
However, some few like lights shining in a dark 
place, remonstrated against the prevalent degene- 
racy and superstition. Smaragdus, a Saxon, con- 
futed many of the Popish errors; Alfric in England 
Was very zealous against the corporeal presence ; 
Bernet in Scotland resisted the attempt to legTilize 
celibacy; and at Oxford many persons pronounced 
the Papacy to be Antichrist. 

Notwithstanding the following age w^as ingulphed 
in a darkness equally gross with that which en- 
shrouded the prior century ; and amid all -he 
croisading enthusiasm, much effect accompanied 
the energetic writings and exertions of a few rei own- 
ed individuals. Berengarius in France, so effectu- 
ally counteracted the doctrine of Transubstanliation, 
that immense multitudes rejected this cardinal doama 
of modern Popery. Bruno likewise strenuously enga- 
ged in the conftict for his support; Damcasius in Italy, 

2 K 



226 GCCtESIASTlCAL HISTORY. LECTURE Xl^. 

pointed his spiritual weapons against the Beast him- 
self in his pride and majesty ; Fulbert and Ido in 
France, and Anselm in Rngland, co-operated in the 
same warfare, by promulging a considerable propor- 
tion of evangelic truth. 

Thus ended the almost impenetrable gloom of the 
" obscure, iron and |eaden age ;" for during the 
twelfth century, themorning's dawn upon the ten king- 
doms is perceptible. The number of the witnesses 
indefinitely multiplied. Fluentius in Italy was me- 
naced with the utmost terror, for preachiiig, that 
'• x\ntichrist had entered the world." Bernard with 
all his bigotry, loudly vociferated against the pre- 
valent corruptions, and most eloquently demons- 
trated, that the Apocalyptical Beast was the Latin 
Pope. Arnold of Brescia, for the resistless force 
with which he combated the monkish heresies, was 
burnt at Rome ; and his ashes were committed to 
the river Tiber, to prevent the people's veneration 
of his character and virtues. Peter de Bruis and 
Henry, in consequence of their doctrines, so offen- 
sive and inimical to the Papacy, were martyred ; the 
former by fire, the latter by imprisonment for life. 
To Vv'hich names may be added Joachim of Calabria, 
w^ho fervently . taught, that the then Pope Was that 
Antichrist, " who is exalted above all that is called 
God, and worshipped." 

Almaric, in the next century, suffered death, for 
denying Transubstantiation and Image-worship; and 
because he had declared himself against the Hier- 
archy, his bones were burnt after his martyrdom, 
Grosthead of Lincoln was so inveterate an opponent 
of the Papacy, that he was denominated " the Maul 
of the Romans; and when "he was excommunicated 
by the Pontiff," he defied him and his anathema. 
To these may be subjoined, Matthew Paris and John 
Scotus, whose testimony against the frauds^ pomp, 
tyranny, follies and superstition of the Apostate 
Hierarchy, hastened the progress and expanded 
the influence of the light and the truth. But these 



ci:;ntuiiies vii.~xvi. 227 

men, great and valuable as were their labours, were 
much obscured by the irradiations of WickcHflf^ 
'' the morning star of the Reformation." In him, 
every Christian hails a Brother; every good citizen 
a distinguished Philanthrophist, and all who are ei>- 
gaged in the promulgation of the gospel, one of their 
earliest Coadjutors. Notwithstanding all tlie impor- 
tant effects produced by his writings and preaching, 
his strongest assault upon the citadel of papal delu- 
sion was displayed in his translation of the holy Bible 
into the Eno-lish lano-uasre. He remained safe amid 
every storm, and finally died in peace ; but about 
forty years subsequent to his death, his bones, or 
those of some other person were burnt by order of 
the council of Constance. From this period until 
the thunders of Luther and his Brethren reverbe- 
rated, the opponents of the Beast augmented in 
number, diligence and hardihood. Sawtre a preach- 
er, and Cobham a noble, were burnt in England 
for the sake of the truth. .Jerome Savanarola expe- 
rienced the same miserable punition at Florence, 
because he urged a reformation in the church ; and 
the murderous arm of persecution was raised to ex- 
tirpate every individual, who dared to dissent from 
the predominant authority. Many in Bohemia, 
France, Germany and England, both by their 
preaching and writings, assailed with ceaseless and 
unintermitting vigour, the traditions and practice of 
the popedom ; and vast numbers of persons were 
called to seal the truth with their blood. But of all 
the single personages whose talents, influence and 
virtues attracted the most distinctive attention at 
that era, and in every posterior age, John liuss and 
Jerome are the chiefs. 

.John Huss, in consequence of his decided superi- 
ority of genius and intelligence, had been appointed 
rector of the university of Prague; and from the 
influence which this elevated station gave him, his 
fulminations against the various abuses and impos- 
tures of the Romish church attracted unbounded 



228 ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. LECTURE %1U. 

attention and commanded general credence. In 
con3ec[iience of Lis denunciations against the Kier- 
archjhewas excGmmnnicated at Rome, and having 
been precluded from preaching, could only instruct 
by his written works. The infamous council of 
Constance enjoined his attendance before them, 
to declare his faith ; w^hich summons he obeyed, 
having been provided with an imperial pasport gua- 
ranteeing his personal safety; and where he arrived, 
attended by John deChlum^ and other grandees of 
dignity and virtue. He was speedily accused, arrest- 
ed and imprisoned. The imperial authority was 
violated, the Emperor's promise annulled, and after 
every perversion of decency, and every mockery of. 
justice, he w?.s consumed in the iiames. Jerome had 
gone to Constance to defend and support his friend 
Huss, but perceiving that no benefit could result 
from his interposition, he escaped ; but prior to his 
arrival at Prague, he was seized, and conducted 
back in chains to Constance ; where he experienced 
every possible indignity. Bound to a post, with his 
hands chained to his neck, he remained ten days 
supported only wdth bread and water. After some 
time he was introduced to the council, and by me- 
naces and promises was induced to retract his sen- 
timents; but being through divine grace, reinstated 
in his fortitude, he boldly declared his repentance 
for his former dereliction, and being condemned, 
followed his friend Huss. in the chariot of fire, to 
that glorious region, where " neither shall the sua 
light on them, nor any heat." 
//. Socisiies. 

The origin of those associated Christians wdiO 
combined to resist the papal usurpations, is lost in 
the gloom of that midnight which enveloped the 
church after the elevation of*' the Man of Sin'' until 
the twilight of intelligence re-appcared, about 250 
years prior to the Reformation. 

These early protestants seem to have been a 
branch of the eastern Paulicians ; and were primarily 



CENTURIES Vil XV J. ^SZ'J 

cleuomiDated ihc Cathari or Puritans, because they 
were '' not conformed to the world ;^' aiterwarils 
being condemned by a council at Albigia they were 
called Albigenses, and as their principal residence 
was near Lyons in France, they were designated as 
Leonisis; and of them the following remarkable 
testimonial is recorded by a Dominican Inquisitor 
2:cnerai. ^^ Among all the sects, which still are or 
have been, there is not any more pernicious to the 
eliurch, than the Leonists. First, because it is older ; 
for some say it has endured from the time of Sylvester; 
others from the Apostles — second, because it is more 
general ; for there is scarcely any country where this 
sect is not — third, because they have a great show 
of piety, live justly before men, and believe Tall 
things rightly concerning God, only they blaspheme 
the church of Rome and the clergy." But their 
history during five hundred years after the com- 
mencement of the witnesses prophesying in sackcloth 
is either buried in almost total oblivion, or has not yet 
been minutely discovered. From that period, they 
appear in more prominent features, and their princi- 
ples, doctrines, character and sufferings constitute 
a yeiy interesting portion of ecclesiastical annals. 
The Waldenses enjoy the pre-eminence. They 
were much invigorated and their unity cemented, by 
the acquisition of Peter Waldo, probably the first 
of the reformed propagators of the Bible: a merchant, 
\iy whose labours and zeal about the year 1170, the 
Gospels and other parts of the Scripture, v/iih other 
pure writings of antiquity, were translated and dis- 
persed in the French language. Their interior eco- 
nomy it is unnecessary at large to detail ; it is suiFi- 
cient to observe, that in all the predominant and 
essential articles of Christian faith, they believed 
with Calvin the Genevan Reformer. Of their Chris- 
tian attainments and practice, the following facts 
will afford convincing evidence. During a fiery 
persecution in Merindoi and Provence ; a monk was 
despatched to convince the heretics, as they were 



230 ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. LECTURE XIl. 

calumiiiouslj named, of their errors, that the author 
rised barbarities might cease. The preaching Friar 
speedily fled from his mission in disgrace, candidly 
acknowledging, that during his whole hfe he had 
not known so much of the scriptures as he had been 
taught in a few days during his conferences with the 
heretics. Another missionary avowed, that he had im- 
bibed more of the doctrine of salvation from the re- 
plies of the Waldensian children in their catechisms, 
than from all the instructions of the Sorbonne univer- 
sity at Paris. Lewis XII. king of France, overcome 
by the clamorous importunity of the Dominicans, 
commanded two dignified persons to investigate the 
character and lives of these anathematized Christians. 
After their research, they reported, that " in visiting 
all their parishes and temples, they discovered 
neither images nor Roman ceremonies, but that 
they could not perceive the smallest trace of the 
crimes with wdiich they w^ere charged ; that the 
Sabbath was most strictly and devoutly observed ; 
that their children were baptized according to the 
rules of the primitive church, and instructed in the 
articles of christian faith, and the commandments of 
God." Lewis having received this testimony, af- 
firmed w^ith a great oath, " they are better than 
myself or my people." 

The miseries which they endured for the sake of 
the Lord Jesus, were of the most acute nature. It is 
improper to describe the barbarous indecencies with 
which they w^ere agonized ; and too painful to unfold 
the perfidious hypocrisy and malignant baseness, 
which accompanied the scenes of carnage and deso- 
lation that invariably attended the march of three 
hundred thousand armed men, instigated by avarice 
and superstition, and of the moveable dungeons, in 
which Dominic and his myrmidons, incarcerated their 
victims, prior to their ascent to Paradise, in the char- 
iot of fire. One fact in its connection with posterior 
history, will evince the extent of their wos, and the 
unutterable folly of persecution. During the first 20 



CENTUHIES Yli XVI,;, ^?^3I 

years after the establishment of the fuquisition, the 
infernal havoc among the followers of the Lamb had 
been so boundless, that at that era, some of the 
more considerate French Bishops, requested the in- 
quisitorial Monks to postpone their arrests and im- 
prisonme^it of the people, until their Grand Master in 
iniquity, the Pope, had been informed of the numbers 
who then were apprehended ; for whom, they declar- 
ed it was impossible for them either to provide ample 
subsistence, or to procure stone and mortar, suflicient 
for the erection of prisons to confine them. '* The 
blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church;" for 
notwithstanding from this period until 1530, three 
hundred years after, the incessant oppressions and 
persecutions of Antichrist worried these sheep with 
unrelenting tortures, which they sustained with ad- 
mirable constancy, patience, and fortitude ; at the 
commencement of the reformation, nearly one million 
of persons were known to profess the religion of the 
primitive Waldenses. '' Here is the patience of the 
saints ; here are they who keep the commandments of 
God and the faith of Jesus : blessed are the dead who 
die in the Lord, that they may rest from their labours, 
and their works do follow them." 

As a regular consequence of the unceasing depriva- 
tions and dangers to which the Waldenses were ex- 
posed, those who could fly, escaped into other regions; 
where in secrecy, they might worship God according 
to their own conscientious dictates and the word of 
truth. Of these the Bohemians and Moravians formed 
themselves into a compact body; and after the mur- 
der of Huss and Jerome, under the command of John 
Ziska, a man of most inflexible resolution and un- 
daunted courage, resolved to defend themselves a- 
gainst persecution, and if they were molested, to main- 
tain their rights, by force. After a long contest, in 
which every act of horrid cruelty was perpetrated, 
the Roman policy prevailed ; part of the warriors 
was cajoled into submission to the PontifTof Satan; 
while the remainder, thus enfeebled, became the 



JS32 ECCLESIASTICAL HlSTOP.Y. LECTURE XIL 

prey of imperial armies and the inquisitors' chains. 
Yet they survived the tornado : immense multitudes 
united with Luther and Calvin and Zuinglrasj and a 
fev/ who retained their predilections for the customs 
and economy of their ancestors, in modern times, 
have emerged from obscurity, as* those pioneers 
of the Missionary cause, the Moravians or United 
Brethren. 

In England, these old Protestants were originally 
reproached by the epithet Lollards ; and in a later 
period, as WicklifFites : and it is not a little remark- 
able, that the family-likeness among these pilgrims 
scattered in Piedmont, Bohemia and England, should . 
Iiave been so uniform ; for in all the prime qualities, 
and in all the distinctive features of the children 
adopted by God into " the household of faith," they 
were identical. They abjured the Papacy ; despised 
human traditions ; adhered solely to the oracles of 
God ; rejected all the superstitions which had been 
incorporated with the christian system ; exempliOed 
all the devotion, meekness and purity of the followers 
of the Lamb ; and knowing in whom they had be- 
lieved, and that he was able to keep that which they 
had committed to him against that day ; patiently 
submitted to every excruciation, which hell-inspired 
ingenuity could invent, and raging mahgnity inflict. 

It would have been easy to amplify this catalogue^ 
but our limits preclude enlargement. Truth is uni- 
form; to it with some exceptions and additions, the 
opponents of the Papacy generally bowed ; the ex- 
perience of christians is very much assimilated in all 
its grand peculiarities, in this they were but one ; 
their testimony, although it was almost coeval with 
the exaltation of " the Man of Sin," to whom the 
dragon gave " his power, and his seat, and great 
authority," was nearly identical, although affected 
by the continual mutations of 850 years ; and our 
modern arguments against the Papal Hierarchy, are 
nothing more than repetitions a little varied, of the 
original resonations of the everlasting gospel which 



ri^xVTURiBs VII. — XV r. 233 

the angel whom Jolm saw flying in the midst of hea- 
ven, " preached unto them that dwell on the earth ;" 
thereby verifying with indubitable certainty, that 
the individual and associated witnesses, whom we 
have all eady enumerated, with their assistants, are 
** the two ohve-trees and the two candlesticks stand- 
ing before the God of the earth.'* 

This view of that glorious army of confessors who 
in every age contested the usurpations of Antichrist, 
necessarily involves the question ; with what success 
were their efforts attended, or to comprize a lirger 
circle of enquiry, what were the more immediate 
visible causes which efTected the partial demolition 
of the sway of the beast, who " had two horns like 
a lamb, and spake as a dragon ? They may be 
classed in two divisions. 

/. Internal. 

I. The great schism in the popedom^ by the divine 
superintendence, manifestly enfeebled the energies 
of the Apostate Hierarchy, it commenced in the 
arrogance of the then haughty Pope, and the bold- 
ness of Philip, king of France. Boniface informed Phi= 
lip, that he as \vell as all other princes were obliged, 
by a divine command, in all political, civil and re- 
ligious affairs, to submit to the papal authority.— 
With the utmost contempt, Philip retorted on the 
pontiff in this style ; " we give your fooFs head to 
know, that in temporals we are subject to no person.'' 
The Pope immediately declared, that Jesus Christ 
had subjected the whole human family to his autho- 
rity, and that every man who disbelieved this dog- 
ma, was excluded from all possibility of salvation. 
In reply, the French king employed Nogaret, the 
most intrepid and inveterate enemy to the Popes, who 
appeared before Luther, to publish a catalogue of 
accusations against Boniface, including a mass of 
crime, and who demanded a council to dethrone the 
spiritual tyrant. A sentence of excommunication 
against the king and his adherents followed; upon 
which Nogaret with a small force surprised the 

2 F 



234 ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. LECTURE XlL 

unwary Pope, and during the short period of his cap^ 
ture, displayed to him the most marked and insulting 
indignity ; but he was rescued, and speedily after his 
return to Rome, died of rage and anguish at his dis- 
grace and disappointment. His successor reversed the 
anathema against the French king, but having filled 
the papal chair during a short period only, an ad- 
herent of Philip's w^as elected Pope, who removed 
the seat of the papacy from Rome to Avignon in 
France, where it remained during 70 years. At this 
period began the' grand separation; for after the 
election of Urban to the papacy, many of the Car- 
dinals offended by his arrogance, withdrew from 
Rome, and elected another Pope, Clement, who re- 
sided at Avignon; from this era, until the coun- 
cil of Constance annulled the authority and preroga- 
tives of all the Popes, by the election of Martin, the 
Hierarchy was involved in a dissension, which filled 
all Europe with distress, calamity and dismay. Two 
or three Popes, supported by some of the horns of 
the Beast, maintained one ceaseless contention; and 
each agitated the world vv^ith his thundering anathe- 
mas against the other and all his associates. Not- 
withstanding the extinction of all sense of religion, 
and the most scandalous profligacy which even 
pretended not to concealment; the authority of the 
Popes received a blow incurable; and multitudes 
believed, that the Gospel of Christ required not 
such a temporal and abhorrent supreme head: these, 
after this deadly wound was healed, doubtless fur- 
nished much of the materials for the fiery martyrdom. 
2. The degeneracy of the ecclesiastical orders consti- 
tuted another prominent reason of that excitement 
which filled all Europe with commotion, when Luther 
enkindled the torch of truth, to irradiate the gloomy 
recesses and arcana of the Monkish system. '^That 
word, Reformation^ said Martin, is more hated at 
Rome, than thunderbolts from heaven, or the last 
day of judgment" 



CENTURIES VII-^XVI. 235 

In the re-action of human affairs, it is not a little 
marvellous, that those same vices and enormities 
which introduced, aggrandized and established, 
eventually obstructed, diminished and undermined 
the Papacy. Cruelty and slaughter gave energy to 
the popedom; and their ravages enkindled that en- 
mity and opposition, which have been assailing it 
with forceful and incessant success. Avarice and 
ambition impelled the Monster in his ascent, and 
secured the acquision of the triple crown ; and the 
inordinacy of both which was subsequently devel- 
oped, taught men to feel, then to think, and finally to 
rebel against a jurisdiction, which robbed all the 
comforts, and palsied all the efforts of civil society, 
and which rendered Christianity a burden instead 
of rest ; and the anticipations of that " life and immor- 
tality brought to light by the Gospel," a source 
of never-fiiling gloom and anguish. 

Men will submit to the yoke to a certain degree; 
but when their chains are too heavy, they become 
furious and break them. Every sensible person 
anticipated a moral concussion. One of the Cardi- 
nals addressing the Pope respecting the mission of 
a legate to England, to demand money to supply 
his magnificent voluptuousness, said, '^ Holy Father, 
w^e treat Christian kingdoms as Balaam used his ass : 
I am afraid they will imitate her ; she, by the seve- 
rity of his blows, brayed most horibly, and so will 
they." The prediction has been fulfilled. If to 
these are subjoined the shameless impurity, the 
notoriously unmeasurable perfidy, their puerile su- 
perstitions, and their traditional absurdities ; we 
shall feel no surprise, that combined with other 
causes, which even the Pope in all the boundless 
plenitude of his power w^as totally unable to control, 
the progress of the light and the truth received an 
impetus lasting and irresistible. 
//. Exterior. 

Some of these causes have already been incident- 
ally noticed. But in addition to the flood of hunaan 



2-36 ECCLESIASTICAL HlSTURi', LKCTURE XlL 

literature, the tide of which continued to swell and 
accelerate its progress — the warring witnesses, who 
fought " the good light of faith" — the silent but inex- 
tinguishable impulse given bj the partial glimmerings 
of illumination imbibed by those who returned from 
the croisades— the melioration of their tastes re- 
specting terrestrial comforts — -a comparative tone of 
independence of character, resulting from th'^ir long 
enjoyed semi-freedom, connected with their un- 
restrained licentious, undiciplined mode of life, 
while on their pilgrimages, and during their resi- 
dence in the Holy land — and the opposition exhibit- 
ed bj suecesive prhices, especially after the daring 
defiance of Philip to Boniface, and the high prero- 
gative? assumed by the civil potentates at the coun- 
cil of Constance — three other events in their com- 
bination, decidedly introduced a new era in the his- 
tory of the w^orld ; and in a very lucid degree, deve- 
loped the wisdom of Jeliovah in his providential 
government, and the mercy of Immanael in the direc- 
tion of that " church of God, wiiich he hath par- 
chased with his own blood." 

1. Typography. — This art was discovered about the 
year 1440, audits universal adoption, has revolution- 
ized mankind. Now it has become, in the plastic 
hands of fetvid Christians, a machine, which like the 
miraculous tongues of the Apostles, proclaims to all 
Deopie in their ovvn '• tongues, the wonderful w^orks 
"of God." The first purely evangelical Reformer, a 
printed Bible^ appeared in 1450. But even this inven- 
tion, which scorns all human eulogy, would have been 
circumscribed in its utiisJy, if the Turks had not dri- 
ven the superior Greeks into the Latin provinces. 

2. The overthrow of the Constant inopolitmi Empire.—- 
When the Turks had captured the imperial city, Con- 
stantinople, they speedily coriqnered all the European 
possessions belonging to ih^'- Greek Emperors. To 
avoid the calamities v/hich tfiey saw impending over 
their native land, multitudes of the most learned 
Greek'^ lied into Italy, and Germany, and transport- 



CENTURIES Vll XVI. 237 

ed with them the intellectual treasures which had 
so long been immured in the monasteries, and other 
depositories of learning. These, through " the es- 
tablishment of the press, were quickly dissemiriated 
in all countries, and excited an unquenchable thirst 
after knowledge ; so that the ancient Latin and Greek 
languages became the objects of general study, and 
none of the higher orders were contented without the 
perfect acquisition of those tongues which then form- 
ed the chief avenue to all intelligence. This con- 
nected with the diffusion of the sacred scriptures, 
not only enlightened, but also purified the principles 
and characters of men. Notwithstanding this con- 
junction of fortunate events, the progress must have 
been very slowly gradual, had not the adventurous 
Columbus unveiled to astonished Europe nearly one 
half of our globe, which until his first voyage across 
the Atlantic, had been totally concealed, from human 
observation and intercourse. 

3. The discovery of America. — This event filled Eu- 
rope with universal enterprize ; all the nobler quali- 
ties of the heart, and all the dignified capacities of the 
mind, in their combined refinement and energy, which 
had so long continued dormant under the iron yoke of 
Antichrist, here found ample room for display. It was 
impossible, in the very nature of things, that after 
marine voyages so long protracted at such great dis- 
tances, with novel books as their only resource for 
amusement, and where the Pope's name had never 
been heard ; men should not realize some feelings of 
that superiority, the consequence of their being so 
long uncontrouled, which would take advantage of 
the first concurrence of things, and determined them 
to escape from shackles, in which their own super- 
stitions no longer confined them. 

But the investigation of these topics, constitutes no 
part of our design : it is sufficient for us to know and 
rejoice, that now it would be equally easy to confine 
the rays of the sun, as the illumination of stereotype; 
that ere long the intelligence communicated bj the 



238 ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. LECTURE XIL 

christian Greeks, of the 15th century, to the residents 
in the Beast's domains, will be superabundantly 
repaid by the Protestants ; when in the primitive 
houses of prayer, at Constantinople, the Mufti shall 
no more mumble his delusions, nor a worshipper of 
images chaunt his Litany to the Virgin Mary ; and 
that the western hemisphere, having imbibed the spi- 
rit of that religion, for the sake of which the Puritans 
peopled the then wilds of New England, will endea- 
vor to promulge the influence of that gospel, until all 
nations " shall beat their swords into ploughshares, 
and their spears into pruning hooks ; and they shall 
sit every man under his vine, and under his fig tree, 
and none shall make them afraid." 

Here let us pause to admire the stupendous admin- 
istration of the High and Lofty One, who inhabiteth 
Eternity." Upon what minute events, often depend 
the most important effects. In our period of the 
church, we are almost lost in wonder, that so simple, 
so obvious, and so effectual a plan to diffuse the sa- 
vour of a Redeemer's name, as the promulgation of 
the bible in every language, had never been practi- 
cally adopted, until within the last 20 years; and yet 
those institutions, organized to diffuse the scriptures, 
which transcend all possible estimation, originated 
in a request for a donation of a few Welsh New Tes- 
taments. The only solution of the difficulty, accord- 
ing to our partial survey, is, that prior to the stimulus 
imparted by the French revolution, every attempt to 
deliver the nations from their vassalage, would have 
been inelficacious ; and therefore, instead of encour- 
aging, would have paralyzed all future exertion. 
May not the same general principle of illustration be 
applied to demonstrate the superintendence of the 
all-wise Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, in reference 
to the causes which produced the splendid illumina- 
tion, that irradiates, with a halo of almost celestial 
glory, the countenances of them who primarily re- 
sounded the blast of denunciation against " the Son 
of Perdition," and which it may be presumed will 



CENTURIES Vll XVI. 239- 

i^ever cease to reverberate, until the Angel shall cry 
" mightily with a strong voice, Babylon the great is 
fallen, is fallen"! 

To us, the type in its continual use is become, not 
merely a luxury, but an absolute necessary of life ; 
and no proposition is more incontestable, than the 
fact, that Popery could not have existed had the 
Booksallers' shelves been loaded with the purer 
works of the pristine Christian Authors. At this pe- 
riod, when the ear of bigotry is inaccessible by a 
Missionary's voice, the eye of superstition is often as- 
sailed by the printed truth ; and the heart evinces, 
that it is vulnerable by the shafts of the Gospel con- 
veyed in its own vivifying power, or through the me- 
dium of a religious tract. Why, do we in vain ask, 
did no type founder exist prior to the middle of 
the fifteenth century ? Why w ere all the plains which 
m this Union now teem with inhabitants, permitted 
to remain only as hunting ground for the roaming 
x\borigines of the Forest ? It would be as easy to 
reply to the question ; why does the wind differ in 
the vehemence of its motions, or why does it blow at 
one period, and not at another? The sovereignty of 
the supreme and ever-blessed God, who directs all 
things for his own glory, and the general welfare of his 
creatures, is the sole reason which can be given for 
these diversities of experience ; and that benevolent 
jurisdiction is not less exhibited in the revelation of 
those discoveries which benefit man; but likewise 
in so concatenating the series of events, that "all 
things may work together for good to them who love 
God, to them who are the called according to his 
purpose." 

This view of the past, while it imparts the most lofty 
ideas of the divine wisdom and power, is also cal- 
culated to imbue us with the most illimitable and 
unshaken confidence in the completion of all those 
prophesies which yet, as far as we can judge, remain 
not consummated. ¥/e have seen the visions of 
six seals completed ; we have heard the sound of 



\ 



240 ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. LECTURE XII. 

six angels, and are convinced that all their dread 
blasts have been wofully realized ; we have witness^ 
ed the evolution of the first and second wos ; and we 
have meditated upon the prophesying of the witness- 
es in sackcloth, and upon the proclamations of the 
first and second Angels against the Anti-christian 
system ; it remains, that we now join in humble ado- 
ration with them who sing the song of Moses the 
servant of God, and the song of the Lamb, saying, 
" great and marvellous are thy works, Lord God Al- 
mighty ; just and true are thy ways, thou King of 
Saints." 



THE REFORMATIGK. 



Anticlirist, in Conformity with his audacious claim, 
having exercised his prerogative in partitioning the 
lately discovered East Indies, and the Columbian 
continent between Portugal and Spain ; and having 
hy persecution reduced to temporary silence the cla- 
mours of those who detested his Hierarchy; all the 
kingdoms of the Beast appeared willing supinely to 
acquiesce in the enormous mass of absurdity, and to 
submit without a murmur, to all the exactions which 
a mandate from the Vatican inculcated. Neither 
the corruption of the inferior clergy, nor the resto- 
ration of literature ; nor the avarice, the ferocity, even 
the bestiality of the Popes, Alexander, Julius and Leo ; 
nor the inexpressible abominations of the Monks and 
Nuns ; nor the depraved and miserable condition of 
the nations, impoverished and vitiated by the eccle- 
siastic adherents of these papal fiend-like monsters, 
produced at the commencement of the sixteenth 
century a solitary complaint so loud as to be heard, 
or sufficiently energetic to be regarded. 

This death-like repose, and it is scarcely possible 
to say which of its characters is most astonishing, the 
Pontifical temerity in exercising its usurpatior.s, or 
the slavish infatuated submission of the people, was 
suddenly interrupted by the inflexibility, the intelli- 
gence, and the virtue of a monk of Wittemberg, who 
like puny David, commenced the battle against the Go- 
liah of the uncircumcised Philistines, and triumphed. 

The prophetic history of this period, is recorded in 
Revelations 14:9 — 13. In 1517, Tetzel, aDominican 
monk, travelling through Germany, for the purpose 
of selling indulgences, granted by the Atheistic Leo, 
which wsecured to the purchaser, the remission of all 

2 G 



242 ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. LECTURE XIIL 

sins past, present and future, however enormous, in- 
numerable and aggravated. The impudent Friar, in 
the course of his journey, arrived at Wittemberg, 
where Luther, at that period, v^as Professor of Theo- 
logy; there, with a boundless insolence of manners, 
and an indecency of style v/hich cannot be repeated, 
he detracted from the power and merits of Jesus as 
the Redeemer of mankind ; and iniquitously boasted 
that " he had saved more souls from hell, by these in- 
dulgences, than Peter had converted.'' The decep- 
tions which he propagated, exhibit the shameless and 
bold frauds that he practiced upon the fears of his 
audience ; '• the moment the money tmkles in the 
chest, your father's soul mounts up out of Purgatory.'* 

The intrepid Martin, roused to the just stand- 
ard of christian indignation, on the thirtieth day of 
October, 1517, published ninety five propositions, in 
which he pronounced the indulgences delusive, and 
declared the Pope a participant of the guilt. The press 
aided the cause ; for within fifteen days, Germany was 
filled with the publication, in which commenced the 
rupture that has despoiled the triple crown of its 
dignity, and obliged " the Man of Sin, to surrender a 
large portion of his predominance. 

These propositions which simply investigated the 
extent of the Papal power concerning the remission 
of sin, excited the utmost rage of Tetzel, who re- 
plied', and v«^ as supported by a number of other Domi- 
nicans, who resented this attack upon their order. 
Against all these adversaries, Luther maintained his 
sentiments, " the common people heard him gladly :'" 
and his success was so great, that even the indiffer- 
ence and contempt of the voluptuous Leo were elec- 
trifi-'^d ; and he commanded Luther to appear before 
Cardinal Cajetan, " either to retract or to suffer pun^ 
ishment." Luther refused the former, and escaped 
from their menaced condemnation. Several attempts 
were made to cajole the Reformer into submission; 
and so circumscribed were his views, that if the 
Lord had not permitted his enemies to proceed to tbe 



CENTURY XVI. 243 

most outrageous opposition, the truth would have 
been retarded in its progress, if not altogether con- 
cealed. Public disputations, at which vast num- 
bers of the most learned men were present, continu- 
ally recurred, and tended to the dissemination of the 
truth. In 1519, a famous controversy was held at 
Leipsic, and in the course of the debate, Luther's 
arguments demolished '•' the authority and suprema- 
cy of the Roman Pontiil ;" and which was more im- 
portant, added to the holy contest, a most renowned 
fellow combatant, Philip Melancthon, 

During the following year, the religious dissen- 
sfbns, having continually and rapidly increased, Leo 
the Pope, consented to, the importunate demands of 
the Dominicans, and issued his bull against Luther, 
condemning his writings to be burnt, and commanding 
him to retract his errors, within 60 days, upon the 
menace of excommunication. This Papal arrogance 
decided the Reformer; without delay, lie performed 
the most splendid action, in fortitude and daring, re- 
corded in the annals of the world. He appealed 
from the Pope to a general council, aiid stigmatized 
the Atheistical sensualist, Leo, " as a rash, iniquitous 
tyrannical judge, a hardened heretic and apostate, 
as Antichrist, the enemy and opposer of the sacred 
scriptures ; and a proud and blasphemous despiser of 
the Church of God." He directed a large fire to be 
kindled, into which, in the presence of the University 
of Wiitemberg and immense multitudes of spectators, 
he contemptuously cast the bull of excommunication, 
the Papal decretals, and thp wh6le canon law ; thus 
declaring his resolution to defend himself against ail 
the attempts of his enemies. To justify this noble 
and extraordinary measure, he selected thirty of the 
most blasphemous positions respecting the Pope's au- 
thority, and with the addition of some comments, 
printed and universally dispersed them; and as a 
consequence of the light whicfi they diffused, and the 
spirit of resistance to the ignominious vassalage, un- 
der which the people had so long groaned ; notwith- 



244 ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORr. LEGTURE XIII. 

standing a continual sucession of Papal fulminations^ 
against Luther, no person Would execute the Pope's 
command for his seizure and death. 

In the year 1521, was held the diet of Worms? be- 
fore which assembly, consisting of all the Princes, No- 
bles, and Ecclesiastical diguitaries of the Empire^ 
Luther was summoned to attend. The elector of Sax- 
ony, Frederic the Wise, procured from Charles the 
Emperor, and other Princes, a full protection ; and e- 
very possible precaution was used to guard the Re- 
former's life. x4ccompanied by several of his friends, 
he proceeded towards Worms, at a short distance 
from which, Spalatinus, the Elector's Secretary, 
wrote to him, advising his return : in this situation, 
with the Pope's condemnation, the Imperial mandate 
to seize all his writings, the utter malignity of every 
Romish adherent of all ranks, and the fact that even 
the public faith could not deliver John Huss and Je- 
rome from the voracious cruelty of the Inquisitors, 
continually forcing themselves upon his notice — all 
the magnanimity and fearlessness of the mighty 
champion for the gospel was developed, when he 
uttered the wondrous declaration, that " he was 
lawfully called to appear in that city ; and thither 
he would go in the name of the Lord ; though he 
should be obliged to encounter at Worms, as many 
devils as there were tiles upon the houses of that 
city ; this would not deter him from his fixed purpose 
of appearing there ; that fear was only a suggestion 
of Satan, who apprehended the approaching ruin of 
his kingdom, by the confession of the truth, and who 
wished to avoid a public defeat before so grand an 
assembly, as the diet of Worms." 

The highest personal vanity might have been sa- 
tiated by the homage paid to him during his resi^ 
dence at Worms. His habitation was continually 
crowded with princely visitors ; and his dignity 
and fortitude conspicuonsly appeared, when he was 
introduced to the Diet. Two inquiries were pro- 
pounded to him by Eckius in tfee name of the Em- 



CEiNTURY XVi. 245 

peror ; one was, whether he acknowledged the 
publications issued in his name ? the other, wiicther 
he would defend or retract their contents? On the 
following day, in reply; the Reformer admitted the 
books to be his writing ; and with christian animation, 
most energetically maintained the doctrines which 
they promulged. 1. Eckius, after Luther had spo- 
ken duririg two hours with the visible approbation 
of a large proporucn of the numerous assembly, 
passionately exclaimed, that he was not summoned 
to state his doctrines ; they had been already con- 
demsied by former councils, whose authority was un- 
questionable ; he was only required openly to say 
whether he would or would not retract his opinions.*' 
Luther's memorable retort to this authoritative inso • 
leoce decided the reformation : '' my answer," said 
the invincible champion of truth, " shall be direct and 
pliin. I am not bound to believe either the Pope 
or his councils ; for they hp.ve often erred, and often 
contradicted themselves. Therefore, unless I am con- 
vinced by the word of God or reason, my belief is so 
confirmed by the scriptures which I have produced, 
and my corjSciei>ce is so determined to abide by the 
Gospel, that 1 ; either can nor will retract any thing? 
for it is neither safe nor innocent to act against a 
man's conscience." Closing with the intrepidity, 
resolution, and confidence of a servant of Jesus, who 
like Moses ^'endured, seeing him who is invisible." 
"Ich stehehier; Ich kann nijht anders ; Gott hilf 
mir. Here 1 stand ; I cannot act otherwise ; God 
help me : Amen." 

After this public exhibition ofthe Reformer's inflex- 
ibility and learning, he remained at Worms a short 
period; during which, incredible exertions were made 
by all the grand ^ of th*^ Empire, secular and ec- 
clesiastical, to induce him to recant. With the com- 
bination of superior intelligence and evangelical h.u- 
Baility, he thanked them for their attentions ; but his 

L ;A^ppendix X- 



246 ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. LECTURE XIII, 

constant unvarying, unalterable declaration was, that 
*' he was ready to do anything, except to deny the 
plain w^ord of God.^' 

When he was pronounced by the bigotted devo- 
tees of the man of sin '' incorrigible and a contuma- 
cious heretic;'' it was proposed to Charles to imitate 
the example of the council of Constance, and hj a 
violation of his imperial guarantee of safety to Luther, 
to exterminate the author of the pestilence; as they 
denominated the progress of the light and the truth. 
This Charles refused, stating, ^' I should not choose 
io blush with Sigismund :" for John Huss, when he 
closed his defence before that infamous gang assem- 
bled at Constance, fixing his eyes on Sigismund the 
Emperor, said, '• I came voluntarily to this council, 
under the public faith of the Emperor now present ;*' 
while the guilty deceiver incompetent to resist so 
forcible an exhil3ition of his crime, " blushed, and bore 
the countenance of a traitor." 

The decree immediately was adopted by the Diet 
in the Emperors name ; denouncing Luther as an ob- 
stinate, excommunicated criminal, depriving him of 
all civic privileges, prohibiting any person from pro- 
tecting him, and commandinj?: all the people to seize 
him, as soon as the 21 days allowed him to return to 
Wittemberg, should have expired. -'He who sitteth 
in the heavens laughed, the Lord had them in deri- 
sion." Frederic concealed the Reformer, from the 
fury of the tempest; on his return home, he was seiz- 
ed by several masked friends, and transferred to the 
castle of Wartburg as a place of security ; this scheme 
it is believed, was sanctioned by Charles ; and it tend- 
ed eventually in a most remarkable degree, to the 
progress and establishment of the Reformation. His 
time, in this Patmos, as Luther designated it, was ve- 
ry busily occupied, in writing consolatory letters to 
his friends, in publishing confutations of his adversa- 
ries, and especially in translating the New Testa- 
ment into the German language. Thus the Lord o- 
verruied the mysterious exile of the chief captain of 



CENTURY XYI. 24? 

the Protcatant cause, and rendered it the means by 
which the Gospel was diffused in the vernacular 
tongue ; long ere it could otherwise have been com- 
pleted, from the want of leisure, and the immensity of 
labor, in which those indefatigable servants of Jesus 
were continually engaged. 

A circumstantial narrative of the progression of e- 
vents which conduced to the final pacific settlement 
of the change introduced by Luther cannot be intro- 
duced in this summary view. In general, it may be 
remarked, that the measures which were adopted 
gradually proceeded from surrounding events: no 
plan had been systematized, and as the illumination 
increased, so the demolition of the Papal superstitions 
followed. During Luther's absence, Carolstadt, one 
of the Professors in the University, attempted to abol- 
ish the mass ; to remove the idol images; to destroy 
auricular confession, and the invocation of saints ; 
and had persuaded the Monks to depart from their 
monasteries and to marry ; thus completely changing 
all the ancient doctrines and discipline : although 
these measures w^ere congenial with Luther's views, 
yet he complained of them as rash and precipitate. 
x\t the same period, Henry VOL wrote a volume in 
defence of Popery against Luther ; and from this 
fact, the Protestant British kings derive their Popish 
title, Defender of the faith ; with which Leo, who 
was an Athaist, honored the licentious Despotic Pa- 
pist Henry; and wdiich all his successors. Papist and 
Protestant, notwithstanding its absurdity, have con- 
•inued to appropriate to themselves. In his answer, 
Luther exhibited the most profound contempt for his 
kingship ; witli great asperity ridiculed his unlovely 
person, and displayed the wretchedness of his argu- 
ments with most biting sarcasm. Plenry complained 
of the insult ; but the Reformer only menaced him 
with additional public exposure of his ignorance and 
silliness if he would not continue silent. How short 
sighted is man ! little did the haughty monarch sup- 
pose, less did the humble Preacher anticipate, that 



243 ECCLESIASTICAIT HISTORY. LECTURE Xltl 

within the lapse of ten years, this same Defender of 
the Faith woald exterminate the Papal supremacy 
throughout England and Ireland. In 1522, the Ger- 
man New Testament was disseminated, and edicts 
were immediately issued against its diffusion : this 
opposilion roused the darmmt lion; for Martin in a 
volume, instantly attacked the Princes who pnhlished 
those decrees against the Gospel, and pronounced 
them impious tyrants. Th-^ University of Paris also 
condemned Luther's doctrines, but the Boanerges of 
the Reformation animadverted upon their decision 
with as much acrimony and scorn as if he had been 
trampling upon the meanest ignoramus. Controv^er- 
sies With kings and Universities naturilly excited uni- 
versal attention ; and added to Luther's fame and in- 
fluence ; while multitudes in various parts of Europe 
rejected the shackles of the Antichristian hierarchy. 
Several Lmperial diets were successively held ; 
one at NuremlDurg ; two at Spire ; in which all the 
attempts of the Papists to crush the accelerating pro- 
gress of the truth were providentially counteracted. 
In the second diet at Spire, in 1529, four of the Ger- 
man Princes and fourteen cities protested against one 
of the decrees of that body ; and hence originated 
the general designation of all those who renounce 
the superstitious communion of Rome, and reject the 
papal supremacy, Protestants. At Augsburg, in a 
subsequent diet, the famous Lutheran confession was 
presented and produced astonishing effects; convinc- 
ing the ignorant, deciding those who wavered, confut- 
ing all opponents, and reanimating the friends of evan- 
gelical truth. The disputations between the parties 
continued to increase, until at length it was deemed 
advisable to form a confederacy at Smalcald, to resist 
if necessary, any attempt to force the protestants to 
submission by military coercion. 

A peace was concluded favorable to the protestants 
in 1531 ; but the adherents of the different principles 
were so decidedly opposed, that all attempts effectu- 
ally to accommodate were fruitless. The propo^itii^n 



CENTURY XVI. 249 

to samtiion the council of Trent having received the 
decided rejection ofthe protestants, Charles the em- 
peror determined upon war, to subdue them to his 
will and the Pope's spiritual authority. After much 
commotion and many severe trials to the protestant 
champions; the elector of Saxony surprised the em- 
peror, and reduced him to the inevitable necessity of 
terminating the deplorable calamities which had so 
long afflicted the empire, by a treaty of peace enact- 
ed at Augsburg, in 1555; which unchangeably estab- 
lished the glorious Reformation. By this compact, it 
was authoritatively and irrevocably determined, that 
^' the protestants shall be entirely free from the Ro- 
man pontiff's jurisdiction ; and are permitted to con- 
duct their own ecclesiastical affairs without controul; 
that all the inhabitants ofthe empire shall judge for 
themselves on religion, and unite with either church 
according to the dictates of their consciences ; and 
that ail persecutors upon a religious pretext, shall be 
legally tried as enemies of the empire^ invaders of 
its freedom, and disturbers ofits peace and harmony." 
In Switzerland, rather earlier than Martin Luther 
commenced his opposition to Tetzel's abominations, 
Ulric Zuingle had expounded the scriptures in truth, 
and censured the errors ofthe Apostacy. The au- 
thority and supremacy of the Pope, he rejected, 
with almost all the anti-christian farrago, anterior 
to the period of Luther's liberation from the minor 
trammels of the papacy. The Swiss reformer was 
a man ofthe most enlarged intelligence, and pos- 
sessed of vast penetration and sagacity, accompanied 
with a resolute spirit of gospel heroism which knew 
no dread, and tiirough the exercise of which, he, 
at once, disentangled himself from educational pre- 
judices and the absurdities with which he had been 
deluded. Kis most noble qualities were called into 
ample exercise by the same cause which excited 
Luther's opposition to the Pope. A most abandon- 
ed monk from Italy, named Samson, was selling his 
indulgences to sin in Switzerland in 1519^ with the 

2H 



V\ 250 ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. LECTURE Xllis 

same impudent effrontery that Tetzel had displayed 
at Wittemberg. Zuingle opposed him with the most 
strenuous exertions and correspondent success. — 
Aided by the independent state of the cantons, their 
views of civil freedom, the impossibihty of imped- 
ing his cause except by exterior force, which the 
convulsed state of Europe precluded, and by a host 
of teachers who promulged his pure tenets of truth 
to a people already prepared to receive them with 
inconceivable avidity ; in a few years, the Pope's 
supremacy and the stupid credulity of the people 
through the blessing of the Holy Ghost upon their 
instructions and writings, were banished from nearly 
all Switzerland; and so effectual was the purification, 
that probably in no part of the Reformed domains, 
Scotland excepted, has pure and undefiled religion 
maintained its power over its professed disciples 
more constantly than in the Swiss Protestant cantons. 
Two circumstances, however, connected with these 
Reformers must not be omitted. The disciples 
of Luther and the adherents of Zuingle differed upon 
a very important topic, " the manner in which the 
body and blood of Christ are present in the Eucha- 
rist." All the disputants denied the dogma of tran- 
substantiation ; but Zuingle maintained that the sa- 
cramental elements were merely symbols intended 
to excite the remembrance of our Lord's death: on 
the contrary, Luther maintained, that the body and 
blood of the Redeemer were really a constituent part 
of the bread and wine. It is scarcely practicable to 
comprehend what the primitive Lutherans under- 
stood by this principle ; but if any idea can be de- 
duced from the '' senseless jargon" which Luther 
himself uttered on this subject ; it would appear, 
that his doctrine was, if possible, more preposterous 
than even the Romish monster, transubstantiation. 
By these divisions, the cause of civil and religious 
liberty was much hindered ; the parties having for- 
got to " keep the unity of the spirit in the bond of 
peace " 



CENTURY XVr, 251 

To this deplorable dissension must be added the 
internal commotion in Germany and its bordering 
countries, excited through oppression and enthusi- 
asm; which was very prejudicial to the cause of the 
Gospel. Myriads of fanatical seditious persons arose 
in various parts of the Empire, and having concentra- 
ted their force, desolated every district through 
which they marched, exhibiting a causeless and most 
unfeeling barbarity. At length, the enthusiast Mun- 
zer having been appointed chief of the rabble, the 
contest assumed a religious character. They pro- 
mulged sentiments at utter variance with all indivi- 
dual decorum, domestic peace and social order; 
and notwithstanding the Protestant Chiefs exerted 
all their influence against this faction, the Papists 
employed the inferences deducible from their con- 
duct, as a weapon with which to kill the sacred 
cause of Christ. Among these infatuated marauders, 
we discover the first systematic attempt to oppose 
the primitive church with regard to the ordinance of 
baptism. Their sentiments were, that magistrates 
and taxes were needless; that the baptism of infants 
is an invention of the devil ; that all things should 
be common stock; and that as the kingdom of Christ 
was at hand, all earthly government was unnecessary. 
Hence they were called Anabaptists, as repeating 
the ceremony of Baptism. However, it must be 
admitted, that from the force of prejudice and exam- 
ple, the spirit of persecution raged against many of 
them, not for their sedition, although they were 
arrayed against the state, but merely for pretended 
religious opinions, the result of error and ignorance; 
and probably neither Luther nor Zuingle can be 
perfectly exculpated for having been ingulphed in 
the Romish doctrine, that heresy respecting the pre- 
dominant religion, was cognizable and punishable 
by the civil Magistrate. 

In 1521, the light of the resuscitated Gospel shone 
upon Denmark. Christiern 11. a most furious tyrant 
was solicitous to exterminate the Romish supersti- 




V\ 252 ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. LECTURE XIII. 

tionsfrom among his subjects; the Lord thus direct- 
ing his ambition to burst the barriers of spiritual 
I vassalage foi* his people. After his exile, for his 

cruelties raised a conspiracy against him, and forced 
him to leave his dominions, Frederic his successor, 
issued an edict, declaring every Dane at liberty, 
either to adhere to the Roman tenets, or to profess 
the doctrine of the Protestants without molestation ; 
and permitted the marriage of the clergy. Thus 
stimulated, the Reformers most zealously and suc- 
cessfully promulged their opinions ; and Christiern 
III. the following king, having suppressed the odious 
episcopal authority ; having despoiled the ecclesi- 
astical voluptuaries of their enormous wealth; having 
returned to their original owners the property of 
Avhich they had been divested by every species of art- 
ifice and stratagem; and having organized a platform 
of religious doctrine, dicipline and worship after the 
model established at Wittemberg, convoked a gene- 
ral assembly of all orders in the state, who solemnly 
sanctioned the royal measures, and thus within 
twenty years, with little commotion, the dragon's 
beast with all his authority and jurisdiction, was de- 
throned in the kingdom of Denmark. 

During the civil dissatisfactions excited by the 
cruelties of Christiern the Danish king; the Swedes 
having refused longer subjection to the Danes, eleva- 
ted to the royal office, Gustavus 'Vasa; who had 
imbibed the doctrines of the Reformation, and who 
perceived their importance to the people of his do- 
minions, if they could be introduced and established. 
Every measure which this patriot adopted was e- 
equally wise and successful. In him the Bible 
Societies hail a powerful coadjutor: he primarily 
commanded that a Swedish translation of the Scrip- 
tures should be universally diffused. When the 
minds of his people had become in some measure 
illuminated, by the perusal and exposition of the 
oracles of truth ; he appointed a public disputation 
at Upsal, in 1526, in which Olaus Petri, the Protes- 



( 




CENTURY XVI. 2^j[) 

tant champion obtained a splendid triumph over tho 
cavils and tblHes of his opponent : the puhhcotion of 
this renowned debate confirmed tlie minds of all wJio 
were attached to Luther's cause, and with astonish^ 
ing rapidity multiplied the converts to the truth. 
Against these innovations, as they were denominated 
by the devotees of the Hierarchy, the Popish eccle- 
siastical dignities most vehemently roared ; they had 
grasped nearly all the possessions of the country; 
their revenues, power and influence far transcended 
that of the executive government; their debauchery 
and t>pulence were commensurate ; and they easily 
perceived the inevitable consequences which would 
succeed the beams of light, that were then w inging 
their course into every hamlet and cottage of th^ 
kingdom. 

Nothing was necessary, but some trifling occur- 
rence which the Bishops were ever ready to seize, to 
transform the kingdom into one universal Aceldama, 
where between the Protestant attachments and the 
Popish bigotry, the ancient hierarchy might be en- 
abled to infix themselves more firmly in their terrific 
sway. At this crisis, in 1527, Gustavus summoned a 
general convocation of the senators, bishops, nobles^ 
clergy and the commons ? in which he proposed by 
the chancellor the reformation of the church. The 
Bishops havi L- previously entered into a solemn 
compact to drfend the Pontiff and the craft, with one 
voice rejected the royal proposal, and thus stimula- 
ted a universal negative from all the votaries of An- 
tichrist. Iramediately after their clamour had sub- 
sided, Gustavus entered the assembly, and avow ed 
his determination to resign the government and mi- 
grate from his country, rather than rule a people en- 
slaved by the Pope, and more controlled by episco-= 
pal tyranny, than by the laws of the land. This deci- 
ded the commons, whose love for Gustavus in conse- 
quence of his having liberated them from the Danish 
bondage, knew no bounds ; for they instantly mena° 
ced the refractory bishops and their vassals with the 




254 ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. LECTURE Xli 



J 



popular vengance, if they did not without delay, sub- 
mit to their sovereign ; and thus the Beast's '^ power 
and great authority" in Sweden were effectually, 
completely and irrevocably exterminated. 

The crooked policy of Francis 1. king of France, 
impeded the influence of the protestant cause in 
that nation. Persecution and toleration continually 
succeeded each other, until during a number of years 
that vast country resembled a charnal house : one 
benefit however followed, even the terrors of the 
French king's murderous edicts, it transferred Calvin 
to a place of security, where he employed all his 
mighty genius in sending abroad the light and the 
truth. The history of the French Huguenots will 
constitute a future theme. 

Had not the secular power supported the tottering 
edifice, the papal doctrines and authority would have 
been demolished , even in the Netherlands, such pro- 
digious numbers of protestant Christians arose, that 
persecution at last induced the seven united provin- 
ces to revolt, and become independent of the Impe- 
rial and Papal jurisdiction. 

In Italy, the progress of truth was arrested by the 
Inquisitors, who perpetrated so many murders, that 
the Reformed exiled themselves into the regions 
where the gospel and its professors were unmolested; 
although that engine of hell could never enter the 
kingdom of Naples. By the same process, the influ- 
ence of the reformation was not experienced in 
Spain; for the " Lords of the Holy office" there 
reigned triumphant, and every spark of the gospel 
was extinguished. Charles the Emperor himself, 
it is supposed, died a Protestant; and of twenty four 
ecclesiastics, his associates during his voluntary 
solitude, after his abdication of the honours of 
Emperor of Germany and king of Spain, not one 
escaped immediate death ; for as soon as Charles 
expired, the Inquisition seized, and either burnt, 
strangled or poisoned every one of them. From that 
period to the present day, the history of Spain in 




CENTURY XVI. 255 

connecliori with Christianity is like EzekiePs vision, 
" a roll of a book written within and w ithout, with 
lamentation and mourning and wo." 

Notwithstanding all the attempts to eradicate 
the seed sown by Wickliff and his successors in 
England, the pure truth was tacitly admitted by many 
of the Lollards, all of whom avowed their attachment 
to Luther's opinions as soon as they were promulged 
in the island. The success with which Luther com- 
bated the weak arguments of Henry, aided also to 
inspire a great veneration for the man who trampled 
w ith equal scorn, upon a Pope's dread anathema, 
a King's authoritative volume, and a University's 
solemn decretal. Henry having become disgusted 
with his queen, made a pretext, that as she had 
been his brother's widow, the marriage was illegal; 
and finding it impossible to obtain the society of 
Ann Boleyn unless by marriage, he appealed to the 
Pope to annul his matrimonial covenant with Catha- 
rine his wife. The Pope was afraid to comply with 
Henry's request, lest he should affront Charles V. 
who w^as Cathraine's nephew ; and equally dreaded a 
refusal, on account of the king's wrath : delay, equi- 
vocation and duplicity afforded the only mode of 
escape from the dilemma. Henry was long tantaliz- 
ed with hope that the Pontiff would accede to his 
wishes ; but having at length obtained an almost 
unanimous decision, that the marriage w^as unlawful^ 
and the Pope having forbidden him from marrying 
Anne, he defied the papal excommunication, banished 
the Pontifical legate, rejected the Pope's communionj 
as head of the church, and by elevating Cranmerto 
the x\rchbishoprick of Canterbury, encouraged in 
many respects the reformation. In 1529, the usur- 
pations of the clergy having excited very strong 
complaints, the House of Commons attempted to 
restrain the impositions of the ecclesiastical orders ; 
their dissolute lives and insatiable avarice strength- 
ening the murmurs against them. The powder of 
Wolsey, as Pope's legate was nuUified, and thu« all 




256 FXCLESiASTlCAL HISTORY. LECtUllE Xllh 

the clergy who obeyed him, became at once guilty, 
and were obliged to purchase pardon at a vast 
sacrihce of their wealth. Many Festivals were im- 
mediately abolished ; images, relics and pilgrimages 
were destroyed ; abbies and monasteries were deso- 
lated ; the orders of Friars, Monks and Nuns were 
suppressed ; and the Bible was translated and par- 
tially dispersed. But the progress of the Reformation 
in England was very small during Henry's reign; for 
he enacted by law the most contradictory tenets, 
60 that Papists and Protestants were consumed in 
the same fire ; the former for denying Henry's supre- 
macy over the church ; and the latter for not believ- 
ing transubstantiation. The grand object attained 
at this period was, the cessation of the Pope's 
authority ; and although in the doctrines, little alte* 
ration was perceptible, yet in the forms of worship 
an obvious difference existed ; much of the exterior 
idolatry was removed; and the most strenuous par- 
tizans of the hierarchy, the Monks and Nuns, being 
divested of their revenues and habitations, lost that 
influence among the ignorant multitudes, by which 
the Romish superstition and corruption had been 
sustained 

By the death of Henry, his son Edward was ex- 
alted to the English throne, who became the bright- 
est ornament, and the most effectual support of the 
Protestant cause. He encouraged literature ; main- 
tained Cranmer, Ridley, Hooper, Latimer and their 
brethren in their exertions; opposed with all mild- 
ness, but energy, his power to the ancient supersti- 
tions; dispersed the scriptures, and established a 
regular missionary system through the island. After 
a reign of six years he died, and was succeeded by 
Mary, a furious merciless bigoted fanatic; who re- 
stored as far a& practicable, the whole papal corrupt 
tion ; and whose whole reign during five years was 
an incessant exhibition of every infernal quality. 
Her persecutions ceased with her death ; and Eliza- 
beth her sister^ oYJettnrned the fabric, and reinstated 



CENTURY XVi. 257 

the ecclesiastical polity as it was when Edward de- 
parted to glory. 

The progress of the truth in Ireland was similar to 
that of England, and attended by the same revolu- 
tions and vicissitudes. Archbishop Brown, after 
Henry's rejection of the Pope, exerted himself with 
indescribable diligence and vigour to eradicate the 
idolatrous superstitions. He overthrew the images, 
burnt the relics, abrogated the absurd ceremonies, 
and procured a general denial of the Pope's jurisdic- 
tion in that island. 

The revenues of the monks were confiscated, 
their convents destroyed and themselves banished. 
In this situation the protestant affairs continued in 
prosperity until the death of Edward ; after which 
Mary had resolved to extirpate the Reformed in Ire- 
land, but her death delivered the professors of the 
truth from utter desolation : although four fifths at 
least of the Irish have continued from that period 
to be justly numbered among the most silly and san- 
guinary of ail the devotees of the Beast which goeth 
into perdition. 

In Scotland, the effects of the light diffused by the 
Reformers were long imperceptible; notwithstanding, 
about ten years after Luther's first public opposition^ 
the number, zeal and talents of the Protestants had 
become so formidable to the papal hierarchy, that a 
considerable persecution, accompanied with inqui- 
sitorial powers commenced : but the national discord 
and confusion were favourable to the progress of the 
Gospel. The first Legislative act against the papacy, 
permitted the people to read the scriptures ir, the 
Vulgar language, yet this law was soon counteracted 
fcy the ascendency of Beaton, the Romish Cardinalc 
Regal and hierarchal tyranny having excited univer- 
isal dissatisfaction, the Protestants increased their 
exertions and courage. At this period, arose the im- 
inortal Knox, whose labours never ceased until he 
was banished. Notwithstanding every obstrnrt^on, 
the protestant cause proceeded, until 1557 ^ whe^ the 

2 I 



258 ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. LECTURE XUL 

first covenant was signed by vast multitudes of per- 
sons, with some of the most distinguished dignitaries- 
of the kingdom at their head ; the feudal system 
which then existed in Scotland powerfully augmenting 
their unity and force. By this, compact all the idol- 
atry of the Antichristian system was denied, and the 
influence and wealth, and mortal existence of the 
covenanters were pledged in support of the word of 
God. They were denominated the Congregation of 
Christ \ to distinguish them from the Papists, whom 
they very opprobriously but very scripturally de- 
nounced as the Congregation of Satan. In this situa- 
tion, neither party daring to commence the warlike 
attack, the contest remained until the death of Wal- 
ter Mill, the last sufferer by martyrdom, through 
the papacy in Scotland. Indescribable horror seized 
all the Reformers when they heard of his execution, 
and the contrast between the barbarity of the Papist 
Archbishop, and the Christian meekness of the tortu- 
red disciple of Jesus. From the period of his death, 
the Reformation extended its flight with the utmost 
velocity to all quarters of the land ; irresistible was its 
force and universal its progress. The Reformation in 
Scodar.d finally involved a national contest which 
throog^h the divine benediction, was closed in the 
shouts of triumph by Knox and his victor companions. 
In no portion of the ten horns of the Beast wasthe pre- 
dominance of popery so completely overthrown as in 
Scotland; every particle of the whole abomination 
which could be discovered, from the Virgin and the 
crucifix exalted in a cathedral, to a forged decretal 
immured in a Monk's cloister ; from a Cardinal's pom- 
pous benediction before the Court, to a Friar's blas- 
phemous absolution in his own cell, were, with equal 
evangelical avidity sought, and with similar christian 
indignation obliterated. To verify the efficacy of their 
labours at that period, history records that Scotland 
has ever been pre-eminent among the Europeans, 
and a counterpart to the primitive Puritans of New 
England, from that era to the present generation, 




CENTURY rV'i. 



259 



for ali that illumination, fortitude, purity, and philan-* 
thropj which their solemn leagues and covenants, in 
the name of the Gospel, so eloquently demand. 

The Reformation, notwithstanding the activity of 
its authors and the zealous energy of its adherents 
was admitted into a very minor proportion only of the 
ten horns of the Beast. In France it was afterwards 
almost totally extirpated — in Poland, its influence was 
always very feeble — in Ireland, its blessings have 
been perpetuated solely by the overwhelming autho- 
rity of incessant military coercion — while in the larg- 
er portion of Europe, Turkey, Russia, Spain and Por- 
tugal, the German imperial territories and Italy, the 
entrance of evangelical truth has hitherto been 
successfully obstructed. A review of the combined 
powers of darkness v>'hich at that period were oppo- 
sed to the extension of the pure doctrines of the 
Gospel, will constitute the subject of the ensuing 
lecture. 




7%e opposition io the Protestants and iks M^fvri/iatlon, 



A rebellion against satanic authority, so sudden,. 
to forceful, and so extended, as that produced hy 
the varied partizans of the Reformation, could not 
be admitted, without an attempt to subjugate those 
who thus rejected the Beast and his mark on their 
foreheads. Power is seductive, and it is a lamentable 
proof of huoian degeneracy, that very few individuals 
recorded in the annals of nations, have been found tru- 
ly qualified to direct its energies. The Reformation 
was a luminous flood, at once traversing the darkness 
of the European hemisphere; for it shed the light and 
the truth, with the rapidity of the tempests flash, and 
with the warmth and the permanency of a Midsum- 
mer's clear and brilliant day. Hell and its minions 
stood awhile indifferent ; at first they w^ere stupid, 
next vacillating, then blustering, and finally having 
recovered their malignity, they resolved^to crush the 
seed of the w^oman who w^as destined to bruize the 
serpent's head. The providence of God is lucidly- 
developed in the various means hy which the church 
of Christ, the ark of refuge, has been preserved amid 
the storms and commotions of the troubled ocean of 
mortality. 

Nothing in the record of individuals can be more 
interesting than a review of the lives and transactions 
of the Reformers. Luther, Calvin, Zuingle, Knox, 
Cranmer, Brown, and their numberless adjutants in 
the holy war, could always say with propriety, " there 
is but a step betwixt me and death ;" and notwith- 
standing their earthly existence was protracted un- 
til after nearly 300 years, we are enabled to say, they 
died precisely at that moment, and each of them in 
that manner, which sealed the rectitude of their 
cause, and constituted the anticipation of its eventual 



CENTURY XV2. 261 

triumph. Our limits admit not even the most minute 
reference to those christian worthies ; but evangeli- 
cal sensibilities recur to them in the fondest retros- 
pect, and indulge the hallowed prelibation of min- 
gling the communion of heaven with the gospel giant'& 
Qf those days. 1 

Our inquiry at present, involves the contest be- 
tween the sons of God and the slaves of Diabolus, or 
rather, the various artifices by which the latter at- 
tempted to counteract the energetic assaults of the 
Rpibrmers upo*' the strong holds of'' the Man of vSin." 
The machinations of the grand adversary of good» 
against the progress of the truth by the Reformation,, 
may be generally classified either as carnal or spir- 
itual ; combining the policy of this world with the' 
exterior of evangelical religion. 
/. External. 

Resistance to the truth was thus exhibited in vari- 
ous fonns, and the servants of Jesus contended with 
the Romish hierarchy, always without secure dc'r 
pendence on terrestrial co-operation, ever with the 
certainty that Babylon would repel. 

I . War. — The royal power was excited against the- 
friends of '•• the rights of man" — many years elapsed^ 
during which a contest, general, bloody, and malig- 
nant, raged in Germany; the sole cause, an attempt 
to destroy Luther and his disciples. In Holland and 
the Netherlands, a civil warfare was protracted un- 
til the battering ram of truth, shivered the odious 
Spanish Philip^s sway over the Dutch, into atoms. 
Scotland was desolated with one almost ceaseless 
commotion during nearly 20 years ; the partizans of 
the Beast stedfastly grasping and defending their 
usurped jurisdiction. The tower of London still 
coi^tains one of the most mournfully splendid tro- 
phies of the Reformation ; the vast exhibition of the> 
instruments of torture intended for the torment of the 
English Protestants, if they would not submit to the- 

I. Appendix XI. 




262 ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. LECTURE XlV. 

Papal supremacy^ provided the infernal Armada had 
been victorious in their attempt. 

Vast changes succeeded the destruction of the 
Romish assaults. Scotland shouted victory, and she 
is Protestant — England sang the song of triumph, and 
she is a chief glory among the nations of the earth — 
Holland defeated the Romish janizaries, and she is 
reformed ; while northern Germany having discard- 
ed the trammels of the Dragon and his princely as- 
sociates, has remained a mighty mound over which 
the waves of superstition have ineffectually endeav- 
oured to roll. 

2. Persecution. — At the commencement of the Ref- 
ormation, the spirit of Abaddon appeared. For a 
Protestant, the sentence of death was instantaneously 
promulged ; and if tangible, his tortures followed. 
All the wars of Europe in which so many myriads 
perished, were waged merely against the Gospel, as 
proclaimed by the Reformers. In Bohemia, during 
thirty years, among the Hussites, all the fury of earth 
and all the malevolence of hell were unchained : the 
human blood which was there effused, comprized 
such a wondrous destruction of the human family and 
such a vile terrestrial extinction of Christians, that one 
of the historians of that period assimilates the blood 
of the martyred Bohemian witnesses, " to the plenty 
of waters of the great rivers of Germany." In Hun- 
gary, Lithuania and Poland, the effusions of the 
Christian vital fluid were not less copious ; so that a 
large part of Europe was " deluged with Protestant 
blood." Thus that religion which had so long irradi- 
ated the countries in which the Waldenses had resi- 
ded, was almost suppressed, and the witnesses were 
slain. It had been predicted by Daniel, ch. 7 : 20, 21 ; 
and by John, in the Apocalypse, Revelation 13 : 7 ; 
and the cause of Christ in those nations has never 
since recovered its influence. The murders perpe- 
trated by the Spanish governors and deputies in the 
Netherlands were so atrocius and repulsive, that 
neither superstition of the most idolatrous cast, nor 



CENTURY XVr. 



263 



degredation of the most servile meanness, could lon- 
ger submit to a tyranny bestial in morals, and infernal 
in mischief Alva, the Don of butchery, himself 
boasted that during the five years of his government, 
eighteen thousand persons had been formally, that is 
by slow paced legal condemnation, burnt for heresy 
— but these were/ci^, contrasted with the multitudes, 
who were slaughtered by his armed myrmidons, ruf- 
jlcms bytrade^ and cruel from impiety^ dispersed through 
all the borders of the land. But the design failed; 
for the Prince of Orange, with Egmond Horn, both of 
whom were murdered, raised the standard of resist- 
ance to the despots, and after an unequal warfare, in 
which, through the blessing of God, the Protestants 
triumphed, the Dutch destroyed the prevalence, and 
constructed a barrier to the return of Popery which 
has hitherto been found effectual; for (he Synod of 
Dort stand pre-eminent among the defenders of the 
Gospel of Christ. 

France largely participated in the horrors of per- 
secution. Within the first 30 years, after the treaty 
of peace, by which the Protestants were secured in 
Germany, nearly the whole generation of Huguenots 
was martyred in the Gallic dominions. 

These Christians on the south of the water, 
were the exact counterpart of the Puritans on the 
northern island. They were men who loved, enjoy- 
ed and practised the truth, in reference to eternity. 
No painter can depict the torment, no poet deliniate 
the agony, and no Preacher describe the complicated 
scenes accompanying the departure of these, " of 
whom the world was not worthy.'^ 

A million, at least, of these Caivinistical Huguenots, 
including members of the Royal Family and persons 
of all grades in the kingdom, during the pilgrimage 
of one race, were consigned by Papal cruelty to the 
invisible world. The cause finally triumphed in the 
access of Henry to the throne; but he became a Ro- 
mish adherent ; and yet, because he was a tolerator 
of his Protestant friends, he died by the dagger of a 



m 



5264 ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. LECiUEI:. SI?. 

Ruffian, who had been previously absolved from sin 
for the perpetration of his crime. Throughout the 
astonishing occurrences of modern ages, few events 
are more interesting than the seige of Rochelle nnd 
the Bartholomew massacre, In the city of Rochelle, 
the protestants concentered, and against their cou- 
rage, and their devotion, in vain did Popery rage 
and contend ; the Huguenots resisted and triumphed, 
after a display of fortitude altogether romantic, and 
a series of suffering which, for the sake of humanity, 
it could be wished were merely a fabulous tale.— ~ 
But the Papists, although vanquished, were resolved, 
if possible, to govern; and obtained by deception, 
that which could not be seized by force. Having 
seduced the chiefs of the Huguenots into a belief 
that they were disposed to be amicable, the Pope's 
devotees contrived the general and simultaneous 
extinction of all the enemies of the papacy. 

It was enjoined by Charles IX. then king of 
France, that on the twenty fourth day of August, 
1572, a Lord's day, when the bells rang for morning 
prayer, an indiscriminate slaughter of all the Pro- 
testants should commence ; the Popish military sud« 
denly rushed into the streets of Paris, and murdered 
every person who was suspected to be a Huguenot ; 
ihe king himself from the windows of his palace 
encouraging his armed bloodhounds, and with his 
own musket, for amusement, shooting the wretched 
«Lnd defenceless Christians who attempted to escape 
from this lawless violence. Day after day these ra- 
vages continued, and were extended through all 
France, until the Savages themselves were satiated 
Vvith the streams of human blood. Two circumstan- 
ces strongly develope the peculiar excitement pro- 
duced by this wondrous persecution. At Rome, and 
generally among the Papists, a special day of thanks- 
givingw^as observed for the destruction, it was hoped, 
of the Protestant cause in France. In England and 
Scotland the horror excited by this merciless despot- 
ism was unbounded. E-Jizabeth the Queen with all 



CENTURY XVI. 265 

her public officers and domestic attendants was ro- 
bed in the deepest mourning ; and when the French 
Ambassador attended to offer an apology for this 
unprovoked and law less murder ofEfizabetli's friends, 
the palace exhibited the utmost display of gloom ; 
blackness and silence accompanying him, until the 
haughty and justly offended Queen uttered the men- 
ace which frightened the Papist tyrant, and express- 
ed her abhorrence in a stjle of dignified sensibility 
that overwhelmed the Ambassador with shame and 
confusion. Some of the Scotch preachers made it 
the subject of pulpit discussion, and so inflamed the 
hearts of the people with hatred to the papacy, that 
this event tended in a high degree, by the insupera- 
ble aversions which it excited, to establish the Refor- 
mation ; while the tenor of the declarations which 
were uttered by the Scottish Reformers with respect 
to Charles, the author of the massacre, almost invol- 
ved the spirit and force of prophecy ; especially in the 
exactitude with which the denunciations pronounced 
against this " most Christian King, and eldest son of 
the Church," were subsequently fulfilled. 

In the present British dominions also, the rage of 
Rome was directed against all the witnesses who con- 
fronted the Beast's supremacy. Henry VIII. was not 
strictly a religious persecutor; his cruelties were ex- 
ercised upon the principle, that his authority alone 
was paramount ; and however absurd his exactions, 
that every person should be forced to obey them. 
But this partial exculpation of that haughty Despot 
cannot be applied to Mary ,his Daughter ; she was lit- 
terally an insatiable leech for the blood of the ser- 
vants of Jesus. Before her incorrigible bigotry, all that 
is lovely and dignified was prostrated. Infancy and 
old age ; persons of the most exalted rank aod the 
meanest son of wretchedness ; of the most pitiable is^- 
norance and the most enlarged illumination, and of 
both sexes, were grasped as tares, and in bundles 
burnt. 

Within the catalogue of modern martyrdom, noth- 

2 K 




266 ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. LECTURE Xlf. 

ing can be discovered more impressive than the last 
earthly days of the primitive Anglo-Puritans. The 
defences of the truth which were offered by Bradford, 
Hooper, Taylor, Philpot, Ridley, Latimer and Cran- 
mcr, rank very high among the noblest efforts of chris- 
tian genius; in fact the very meanest of those who 
were doomed to suffer in the papal furnace of fire, 
upon their examinations, triumphantly and with the ut- 
most simplicity, confuted all the learning of their dom- 
ineering adversaries and tormentors. During Mary's 
reign, some very peculiar instances of the judgments 
of God upon the persecutors of his people occurred, 
which form a very stupendous contrast, when review- 
ed in connection with the imprisonment and deaths 
of the heroes of the gospel. Many of the dungeons in 
which the saints were literally intombed alive, were 
like the jail at Philippi, the house of God and the gate 
of heaven ; while the- palaces of their infuriated judg- 
es were the abodes of the furies : very few indeed of 
the prime instigators and executioners of the sentence 
ofwo upon the Redeemer's discipl(^s, escaped a death 
marked by the signal infliction of the divine vengeance 
and exact retribution. 2. 

In Scotland, an attempt w^as made to introduce the 
Inquisition, or a court invested with similar power ; 
but Hamilton the President having been executed for 
high treason, that tribunal of mischief was extirpated. 
Subsequently however, the Papists having recovered 
their energy, and the Man of Sin having despatched 
an inflammatory Bull and commission against the Pro- 
testants, " great numbers suffered in the flames." But 
the seed of truth which had been sown was incorrupt- 
ible, being the pure word of God, which liveth and a- 
bideth forever ; and it speedily burst forth in all the 
force and luxuriance of an evergreen, hardy, verdant 
-and healthful ; and having been watered by the dews 
of heaven, it expanded its foliage and brought forUi 
fruit a hundred fold to the praise and glory of redeem- 
ing grace. The Scotch Protestants felt as if every 

2. Appendix Xn. 



cRNTtjRY XV r. 267 

family had been bereft of an inmate, when George Wis- 
hart was precipitately consumed in the fire ; and the 
martyrdom of Walter Mill inspired a resolute deter- 
mination which eventually demolished the papal au- 
thority in Scotland. 3. 

The situation of Europe, and the activity with 
which Mary engaged in the destruction of the English 
Protestants, so engrossed her attention, that she had 
notleisure, for a long period, to inquire into the state 
of popery in Ireland. But as Brown, the archbishop of 
Dublin, persevered in denying the Papal supremacy, 
and in exterminating the whole mass of mummery 
within his diocese, which he had commenced during 
the reign of Henry, and continued with augmented vi- 
gor while Edward lived ; it was finally resolved to- 
wards the latter end of Mary's bloody career, that a 
species of the inquisition armed with all possible au- 
thority should be erected in Dubhn ; and for this pur- 
pose, a furious hell-hound, named Cole, received am- 
ple powers. Few events recorded in ecclesiastical 
history, more lucidly develope the impotence of man, 
and the perpetual interposition of God on behalf of 
his church in their last extremity, than the subversion 
of this odious project. The Irish Protestants had been 
doomed by Mary and her privy Council to total ex- 
tinction, and WTath to the uttermost was prevented 
from being effused on them in consequence only of a 
very singular display of divine Providence. Cole, 
^'flushed with the expectation of success in this glori- 
ous enterprise, travelling to the sea-coast to embark 
for Dublin, stopped for a short time at Chester. Du- 
ring his stay, the mayor of that city, not less furious 
than Cole for the papal dogmas, visited him, and the 
Commissioner appointed to inquire into all kinds of 
heresies and schisms, exulted in the most noble and 
pious commission with which he was invested, and 
displaying a leather case, here, said he, " is a com- 
mission which shall lash the heretics of Ireland." This 
declaration being made in the hearing of the woman 

3. Appendix XIII. 




268 ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. LECTURE XIY. 

who conducted the business of the inn, from a number 
of motives, for she was deeply interested in the pro- 
testant cause, she resolved to seize an opportunty if 
possible to defeat Cole's mission and object. After the 
interview with the major had closed, Cole respectful- 
ly accompanied him to the door ; the mistress of the 
house secreted the odious commission of evil, and in 
its stead inclosed a pack of cards. The would-be in- 
quisitor, without examination, returned his package to 
the trunk, and on the next morning sailed for Ireland. 
His arrival and object were immediately announced 
to the Lord Lieutenant; upon which he was invited 
to a meeting of the council. With all official pomp, 
he appeared in the chamber of audience, and deliv- 
ered his credentials to the secretary. The paper 
was opened, when to the utter astonishment of the sec- 
retary, he saw only a pack of common playing cards, 
with the knave of clubs grinning at him. Cole was 
chagrined to the lowest depth of contemptible humil- 
iation, but having recovered from his surprise, he a- 
verred that he had received from the queen a genuine 
commission, but how it had been exchanged, it was 
altogether impossible for him to ascertaili. " You 
must return for another commission," said the Lord 
Lieutenant, and with facetious sarcasm added, '• we 
will shuffle the cards in the interim." Prior to his ob- 
taining the second commission, Mary was summoned 
to give an account of the deeds done in the body, at 
the bar of God, and Cole has remained from that day 
to the present, an object of ridicule and detestation." 
Upon what trifling contingencies, according to our 
estimation, often depend the peace of nations and 
individual prosperity, this fact most lucidly and feel- 
ingly illustrates ; and we are impelled to admire the 
wonder-working arm of Jehovah Jesus, the great 
head of the church, who thus supremely controuls the 
mischievous devices of men, and so directs, that sJl 
their most sagacious conspiracies to perpeprate eril 
become nugatory, and their wisest plans to dissem- 
inate Wsery and iniquity are rendered abortive. 




CENTURY xvr. 269 

//. Inter naL 

It would be altogether impossible to condense in- 
to any comprehensible form, a narrative of all the 
secret combinations by which the destruction of the 
Protestant Chiefs was attempted. One instance may 
suffice ; for they are so similar in their nature and 
operation, and mark so brilliantly the goodness of 
God to his church, that every emotion of gratitude 
must necessarily be excited. The reference is to 
Luther. From the publication of the sentence, by 
which the Diet at Worms pronounced him a vaga- 
bond whom any person might with impunity murder, 
his life during nearly 30 years, was the continual ob- 
ject of secret and open assault. Every method which 
hellish ingenuity could devise was adopted to murder 
him : poison and assassination in every multiform dis- 
guise ; artifice and force in every species of marshal- 
led array ; previous pay, large promises, and perfect 
absolution for the crime, all were embodied against 
him ; but impotent were their efforts and useless their 
machinations ; for Martin died at Isleben, the place 
of his nativity, in his own bed, in the triumphs of 
faith. This is not a solitary instance of a superin- 
tending Providence in connection with the life of the 
servants of Jesus. The memoirs of Zuinglius, Galvin, 
Knox, Cranmer, ^rown, and their illustrious com- 
peers, abound wifh similar attestations to the cease- 
less malignity and secret hostile attempts upon the 
mortal existence of the luminaries of the Reforma* 
tion. 

It was proper to hint at these private minor at- 
tempts to obstruct the truth as it is in Jesus ; but two 
schemes were devised and successfully adopted, 
which under any other circumstances, and prior to 
the invention of printing, without a miraculous inter- 
vention of God, must have totally demolished the 
Reformation. 

1. The Council of Trent,— To quiet the clamours 
of the Protestants, to impede the progress of illumina- 
tioD) and to silence the murmurs of the discontented 




2?70 ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. LECTURE XIV. 

among the Papists, it was determined to convoke 
a general council of the church ; but as it was sum- 
inoned by the Pope, regulated by his legate, and en- 
tirely at his controul, the Protestants reiused to ac- 
knowledge its authority and purity. At intervals, 
during twenty five years, this council remained in 
nominal session ; the pretext, to devise measures for 
the restoration of the church to its pristine apostolic 
character ; the design, to defend the Papacy against 
the Protestants, and to exterminate the glorious Re- 
formation. The external or the interior history of 
this famous Council must not be detailed ; for every 
species of abomination originating in the corruption 
of man or Satanic temptation, this horde of ferocious 
voluptuaries stand pre-eminent. 

This council, as we have already understood, is 
now the grand and infallible authority among the 
modern Papists ; and how highly it deserves this un- 
limited jurisdiction over the consciences of men, may 
be understood from its aets and decretals. 

The council of Trent assembled under the auspi- 
ces, and was sanctioned by the authority, of Charles 
V. the Emperor ; and having triumphed over the 
Protestant Princes, nothing less than the complete 
overthrow of the Reformation in Germany was anti- 
cipated. " But there is neither council nor might 
against the Lord ; his purpose must stand, and he 
will do all his pleasure :" the jo/cf^-we entered the city, 
and the Papists dreading this enemy, fled ; and the 
council was virtually dissolved. After a long inter- 
val, the council was re-assembled ; and its decisions 
have solemnly sanctioned the most offensive and de- 
testable qualities of the Papacy. The more ostensi- 
ble points of debate between the Protestants and the 
Papists, and concerning which the former expressed 
their abhorrence, have been ratified as infallible ' 
doctrines of the Gospel; the corruptions of faith, and 
the ambiguity of the rules concerning practice, wece 
enlarged and multiplied ; the utmost scorn and vifu- 
peration were expressed against the Reformers ^nd 



m%: 



CENTURY XVI. 271 

their doctrinies ; the latter were pronounced accurs- 
ed ; and they who believed them were excommuni- 
cated and anathematized with " bell, book and can- 
dle." Among the topics particularly, which the coun- 
cil of Trent have deliberately confirmed, and in the 
most deceptive form, are the doctrines of purgatory, 
the invocation of saints, and the worship of images. 
One other point they hjive with more candour pro- 
mulgated, that the scriptures alone are not a suffi- 
cient rule of faith and practice; and hence, the pres- 
ent Pope his lately issued his bulls against all those 
who tacitly admit his supremacy, whose names are 
recorded in the catalogues of the Bible Societies ; 
and has quoted the decision of the council of Trent, 
to sanction his enmity against those who disperse 
the word of God. But we may rejoice ; his philip- 
pics are three centuries too late to be effectual ; th,e 
gospel of Christ must " have free course, and will run 
and be glorified." 

No doubt can be momentarily admitted, that this 
infamous council constituted a very efficient portion 
of that rampart which Popery erected against the 
assaults of the original Reformers, and that it is still 
the strong hold of " the Man of Sin." 

2. The Jesuits. — Ecclesiastj^ial dominion has always 
been supported by the va;;ious orders which it has 
engendered ; and the monastic clans were ever the* 
buttress of the Papacy. From their primary abuse 
to this period, they have invariably constituted the 
efficient means by which the Pope maintains his sway 
and influence. By them, the devotees of superstition 
are trained and preserved in order. The defection 
of so many of the different classes of Friars and Nuns, 
through the operation of the truth proclaimed by the 
Reformers, with the obloquy which was attached to 
those sons of corruption, urged another attempt to 
organize an efficient force to guard the Vatican from 
demolition. To heal the wounds and to restore en- 
ergy to the dilapidated hierarchy, was an object of 
indispensable necessity and of most urgent import- 



'^VZ ECCLESIAKTICAL HISTORY. LECTURE XIV. 

ance. A Spanish soldier, Ignatius de Loyola, equally 
illiterate and fanatical ; but bold, ingenious and act- 
ive, became the tool of some of the Papal adherents 
at Rome, and appeared as the author and head of a 
new society, called after the usual name of the Sav- 
iour of mankind, the order of Jesus, or Jesuits. 

The progress of this fraternity presents a subject 
of real astonishment; within a few years, they were 
agents of darkness throughout the greater portion of 
the globe ; and as their principles were adapted to 
all people and all circumstances, they speedily en- 
grossed a sway in the affairs of mankind almost incred- 
ible. They professed but one object, to maintain 
and extend the papal authority — they made one vow, 
*' to go without deliberation or delay, wherev^er the 
JPope shall think fit to send them" — and they all act- 
ed upon one system, to accommodate themselves to 
the passions, prejudices and habits of those whom 
they wished to proselyte. As a natural consequence 
of these combined motives to action, their system in- 
volved every possible abomination. It would be im- 
proper to delineate the doctrines upon which they 
acted^ — every thing with a Jesuit was metamorphosed 
upon the broad basis of expediency. Vice and vir- 
tue, truth and error, religion and idolatry, good and 
evil, lost their distinctive qualities when brought with- 
in the operation of a Jesuit's legerdemain. By a cease- 
less activity, these servants of Satan interrupted the 
progress of the Reformation, and in every subsequent 
age have been the most inveterate enemies of godli- 
ness, and the most restless enemies of mankind. Their 
impudence and vice finally produced their nominal 
extirpation, but they only passed into a new form, as 
almost all the Papists of ecclesiastical rank now in ex- 
istence are either secretly Jesuits, or avowedly the 
brethren of St. Sulpicius, which name they assumed to 
conceal their outrageous enormities. The temper a/id 
spirit of these Jesuits might be easily known from the 
dispositions of the Popes by whom they were fostered. 
Clement YIL was a man of such perfidious principles, 




CENTURY XVI. 273 

that no person professed to confide in him ; a wretch- 
ed Judas, who laughed at all idea of honour, or prob- 
ity or fidelity. Paul HI. was a monster familiar with 
crimes which the house of prayer must not even hear; 
but w^e may understand something of his character 
from the fact, that he nominated two of his illicit 
children, cardinals of the church, when infants. Ju- 
lius III. immediately after his elevation to the Pope- 
dom, transformed an infamous boy who fed his mon- 
keys, into a cardinal ; and having been reproved by 
the other members of that college, for introducing a 
creature among them without learning, merit, or vir- 
tue, he impudently inquired, '• what virtue or merit 
they had found in him, that could induce them to 
place him, Julius, in the papal chair .^" 

The character and spirit and actions and destiny 
of thfi Jesuits w ere delineated with almost prophetic 
perspicacity, by the Irish Reformer, Brown, a few 
years only after their pristine appearance. "Theie 
is a new fraternity of late sprung up, who shall call 
themselves Jesuits, who will deceive many, after the 
manner of the scribes and pharisees. Among the 
Jews they shall strive to abolish the truth, and shall 
come very near to do it. For they will turn them- 
selves into several forms ; w ith the heathens a hea- 
then, u'ith the atheist an atheist, with the Jews a Jew, 
with the Reformers a Reformer, purposely to know 
your intentions, your minds, your hearts, and your 
inclinations, and thereby bring you at last to be like 
the fool who said in his heart there is no God. These 
shall spread over the whole world, shall be admitted 
into the councils of princes, and they never the 
w iser ; charming of them, yea, making princes reveal 
their hearts and the secrets therein, and yet they not 
perceive it ; w hich will happen from falling from the 
law of God, by neglect of fu Hilling the law of God, 
and by winking at their sins ; yet in the end, God, to 
justify his law, shall suddenly cut off this society, 
even by the hands of those who have most succour- 
ed them, and made use of them ; so that, at the arid, 
" 2L 




274 ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. tECTURE Xl\. 

they shall become odious to all nations : they shall 
be worse than Jews, having no resting place upon 
earth, and then shall a Jew have more favour than a 
Jesuit." This is an accurate portrait, and the anti- 
cipation has been realized ; but it is not irrelevant 
to observe, that one of the grand demonstrations of 
the unchangeable and genuine spirit of Popery is 
discoverable in the fact, that after the Jesuitical or- 
der was authoritatively demolished, half a century 
since, in consequence of abominations which even 
Romish corruption could not calmly tolerate, Pope 
Pius, the present usurper of divine prerogatives^, has 
again embodied this band of deceivers, for the 
avowed purpose of sustaining the almost prostrated 
Hierarchy, and the debilitated " Man of Sin." 

These constituted the machinations by which the 
reform of the Church was primarily counteracted. 
Heresies of various kinds were also invented or re- 
newed and extensively promulged ; and as they pro- 
ceeded from the additional freedom imparted to the 
human mind by the destruction of the adamantine 
chains with which the human enerories had so Ions: 
been fettered, they were imputed to the Reformation, 
and furnished a ceaseless subject for Popish stigma 
and reproach. This will be illustrated as we pro- 
gressively review the various denominations into 
which modern christians have been divided. 

The Reformation is an epoch too remarkable and 
interesting to be slightly noticed. Combining a most 
stupendous moral concussion, it excites inquiries res- 
pecting the effects of so vast a resolution in mundane 
affairs. As the ostensible source of all the improve- 
ments in individual character and in national man- 
ners, so obvious when contrasted with the ferocity 
of the ages anterior to the sixteenth century, " the 
shaking of the nations" produced by the blast of the 
third angel's trumpet, the glorious events connected 
with the history of the Reformers, have received much 
less consideration, and excited much less affection, 
than from their intrinsic importance they indubitably 
deserve. 




CENTURY XVI. 275 

If it be asked, v/hat blessings have followed the 
Reformation ? the reply is immediate — they may be 
classified in three general applications. 

1. As individuals, tlje tribes of mankind have been 
benefited by that splendid event. The degradation 
and barbarism which are portrayed in the annals of 
the middle ages, are in a great measure excluded from 
those countries where the benignity of the christiai 
religion has effused its delights. Gross darkness 
covered the people ; they verily sat in darkness, and 
groped in '' the valley of the shadow of death;" noth- 
ing could possibly be more inhuman in principle, fe- 
rocious in sensibility, and depraved in conduct, than 
the multitudes who were directed by a Papal man- 
date, and menaced with a Friars excommunication. 
Before this tremendous jurisdiction, every energy, 
both corporeal and mental, vanished into thin air. 
equally vapid and feeble ; and man became a mere 
tool, to perpetrate atrocities too monstrous to be de- 
tailed, and to promulge absurdities too contemptible 
even for ridicule. Of his rights and duties, he was 
profoundly ignorant ; all genuine concern for his 
destiny was absorbed in the sentence of pardon pro- 
claimed by his Father Confessor ; and as there was 
no restraint upon crime through fear, iniquity rolled 
throughout the nations in an unintermitted over- 
whelming flood. By the Reformation, an impetus 
was given to all the moral machinery of the world ; 
ihe immunities with which God has inalienably in- 
vested the rational creatures whom he has formed, 
then were developed in all their freshness and value ; 
and the nations which before had submitted to have 
the remuneration of their labours unnecessarily filch- 
ed from them, by the exactions of their spiritual 
task-masters, now began to learn and to experience 
the superior advantages of active life, untrammelled 
by a Jesuit's craft, and not subject to ceaseless rob- 
bery by the myrmidons of the Inquisition. But it is 
not solely in the ranks, as a member of civil society, 
that the blessings of the Reformation are developed, 




■276 ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORV. LECTURE XH'o 

it is also in the spiritual improvement of men. Vv Iio 
can arrest the alternations of the tide ? Who can 
change the order of the celestial orbs in their inces- 
sant revolutions ? If this surpass the utmost stretch 
of mortal capacity, how much less impotent is he, 
who would now strive to impede the march of the 
christian kingdom, to universal extent, and imperish- 
able influence ? Freedom has engendered activity, 
this has fostered improvement, and in religion and 
morals it has furnished the most splendid evidence 
of its sway and success. 

By the accelerating progress of divine truth, men 
have become more intimately acquainted with Jeho- 
vah, and with his requisitions upon the human fami- 
ly. The distinctions between good and evil have 
become more obvious ; idolatry has bowed before the 
spirituality of •' pure and undetiled religion," like 
"Dagon fallen upon his face to the ground, before the 
ark of the Lord" — practical irreligion in all its diver- 
sified forms, as sanctified by priestly absolution and 
papal indulgence, has in a great measure subsided — 
and the grand doctrine, that man is a responsible 
creature at the bar of God, has been luminously ex- 
hibited in all its application and force. " The na- 
tions which sat in darkness have seen the great 
light." 

2. Men in their associated national capacities 
have been wondrously benefited by the Reformation. 
This is evident to all who understand the history of 
the Roman empire prior to the discovery of the ty- 
pographic art. Grandeur in the feudal ages among 
the Nobles who composed the ten horns of the Beast, 
ordinarily combined a gorgeous exhibition x)f un- 
veiled vice with the iron armour of devotees, always 
ready to plunge into any warfare which a papal bull 
had previously consecrated. 

Our rapid sketch cannot even enumerate the vari- 
ous advantages which have attended the resuscita- 
tion of the Gospel from the sepulchre in which the 
Dragon and his worshippers had entombed it r but 
two general effects may be recorded. 



CENTURY XV i. 277' 

The principles of government among the nations, 
have been extensively reformed. Centuries elapsed, 
and the same abominable dogma remained as infalli- 
ble, thit the members of the human family shonld be 
transferred with the soil. As one example will elu- 
cidate the operation of the whole, it is needless to 
multiply instances. William the Norman, claimed a 
right to the kingdom of England ; his demand was 
denied and resisted; he transported an army from 
France to England, and having been permitted by 
God to murder the staf of the nation, he forciblj 
ruled over the people v/hom he had thus enslaved. 
One of the conditions stipulated between him and 
his principal marauders, was, that the whole land, 
with all its inhabitants, should be subdivided into 
districts, according to the pr(|p,ortionate aid which 
each brought to complete this general devastation. 
Accordingly, the land and its appendages were al- 
lotted to each Chieftain according to compact, and 
all the residents upon the soil were also doomed as 
slaves to toil for their invaders. Human cattle were 
thus degraded, bought, sold and exchanged, scourg- 
ed, starved and murdered,during several generations, 
with nearly the same impunity with which a modern 
Nabob of Virginia or Carolina or Georgia exchanges 
or raffles for his Negros, or sells his own children by 
the pound at the flesh market, or with his hickory 
staff gradually demolishes mortal existence. These 
practices were then universally authorized, but that 
period in Europe has passed away ; the glorious ef- 
fulgence of the sacred oracles has diffused a lustre 
with regard to personal privileges, which it may be 
contidently presumed can never more be obscured. 

Although some remains of the feudal system still 
exist, it is demonstrable, that its total destruction is 
not far distant ; and that to the Reformation, we are 
chiefly if not altogether indebted for the triumph of 
liberty over the Gothic despotism of the dark ages. 

The other social advantage that has resulted 
from the renovation of Europe, which commenced in 



278 ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. LECTURE XIV, 

the sixteenth century, is discernible in the increased 
industry of the inhabitants, and the consequent mul- 
tipHcation of their comforts. Ignorance of the arts 
and sciences, and of all mechanical philosophy, was 
universal and apparently incurable ; for all the reign- 
ing customs and principles of society were prejudi- 
cial to the melioration and enjoyment of the people. 
" Could any greater restraint be laid upon industry, 
or any obstacle more insurmountable be opposed to 
it, than the idle monastic life, by which a large pro- 
portion of the most potent and vigorous inhabitants 
were withdrawn from the activity of useful labour ; 
who also consumed in the utmost prodigality the 
proceeds of the others' employment ? Wherever 
the Reformation has been adopted, the superfluous 
festivals, costly pilgrimages, and all those institutions 
which encouraged indolence, have been abolished ; 
the activity of the inhabitants has been indefinitely 
increased ; the impoverishment of the nation by the 
imputation of indulgences from Rome ceased, and 
prosperity has attended every species of business." 
Thus, even in our secular national relations, the 
change effected by the instrumentality of the primi- 
tive Reformers, involves all that is dignifying to in- 
dividuals, prosperous to the community, and bene- 
ficial to the world. 

3. But it is within the boundaries of the church of 
Christ, that the nobler and more sublime privileges 
of the Reformation have been developed and en- 
joyed. At the commencement of the sixteenth cen- 
tury, " the temporal authorities possessed but a small 
degree of power in their respective dominions : the 
highest potentates were subject to the mandates of 
the clergy, their own inferiors. In general, the ec- 
clesiastics displayed no obedience to the civil au- 
thorities ; and if the princes complied not with their 
insolent demands, and did not profusely enrich them 
with magnificence and wealth, every attempt was 
made to excite rebellion. Religion always furnished 
them with a pretext for disobedience to the govern- 




CENTURY XVI. 27^ 

ment, and for their impositions upon the people. Ex- 
empt from taxes, and payments towards the necessi- 
ties of the state, they engrossed, almost in every coun- 
try, more than one half of the national revenues ; and 
for a King to oppose the hierarchy thus apparently 
impregnable, was assuming the danger of banishment 
from liis territories, and personal martyrdom, besides 
the indiscriminate slaughter of all those who adhered 
to him. But the clergy not only domineered over 
governments, they also much more odiously usurped 
jurisdiction over the community. Their commands 
Averc irresistible ; and through auricular confession, 
the secrets of all hearts were exposed to their inves- 
tigation. Examination, or research, or personal in- 
quiry was not even supposed to be admissible ; and a 
word or a doubt respecting either of their absurd or 
corrupt dogmas, invariably insured speedy death, un- 
less favour could be obtained by a large pecuniary 
bribe. Under this galling yoke, in this most humili- 
ating vassalage of body and soul, the Europeans du- 
ring several centuries had hopelessly groaned until 
at length they became insensible to their own degra- 
dation. But finally the merciful Providence of the om- 
nipotent Jehovah raised up the instruments to exter- 
minate these impious abominations, and to overthrow 
this horrible tyranny." 

The ecclesiastical changes which have flowed from 
the execrations of the Reformers, three centuries 
ago, comprise a large circle of advantage to the hu- 
man family in general, but peculiarly so, to the in= 
habitants who resided in the domains of " the son of 
perdition." Devotion in its external forms has been 
inconceivably purified; the mummery of the Romish 
ritual, and the pageantry which absorbed every spir- 
itual feeUng have disappeared, that the more simple 
worship of the heart might be introduced ; and this 
is obviously the grand source whence proceed alllhe 
refinements of religious character which so luminously 
distinguish the present from the former ages. How- 
ever imperfect may be our attainments when accu- 




280 hXCLESlASTlCAL HISTORY. LECTURE XlY, 

rately compared with the extensive requisitions of the 
divine law, and the impressive exemplary standard 
of the gospel of Jesus, yet, from the commencement 
of that period, when crucifixes, statues, pictures, ima- 
ges, cloisters, abbeys, convents and idolatrous pro- 
cessions were countermanded and destroyed, until 
this day, notwithstanding all opposition, a constant 
progress to that perfection of " fellowship with the 
Father and with his Son Jesus Christ," which shall 
so exquisitely adorn the latter-day glory has been de- 
monstrated. Of this general spirit, no illustration is 
more lucid and lovely, than the modern attempts to 
disseminate the knowledge of evangelical truth, "from 
sea to sea, and from the river even to the ends of the 



earth. 



•>? 



The influence of popery and of its head has obvi- 
ously declined. Altho' in numbers, probably the pres- 
ent Pope can form a catalogue of nominal adherents 
as lartje as his Predecessor could have framed during: 
the fifteenth century, it must be remembered, that 
the irresistible power over the people, which the for- 
mer pretended Vicegerents of God indubitably pos- 
sessed, has almost entirely disappeared. Neither 
Governors nor the people regard, obey, or enforce a 
papal bull; the injunctions are despised, the mena- 
ces are ridiculed, and the vision of Bunyan's dream 
is literally fulfilled ; the Pope sits at the entrance of 
his gloomy and cruel den, grinning at the Pilgrims, 
as they pass ; he can only rail, for he is now too im- 
potent to seize and destroy. What a vast superiority 
does this fact alone impart to modern ages ! What a 
subject of triumph does this involve, that folly is not 
credited, and duty neglected through the dread of a 
papal curse ! Printing has laid " the axe to the root 
of the trees ;" and ere long " the ten horns of the 
beast, shall hate the Mother of abominations of the 
eartli, and shall make her desolate and naked, and 
shall eat her flesh, and burn her with fire." 

Nothing could possibly be more utterly at variance 
with common sense as well as with religion, than the 



CENTURY XVr, 281 

positions, that every person who does not believe as 
the Pope prescribes, shall be anathema, and then 
burnt, the earthlj symbol of the transfer to the ever- 
lasting fire, prepared for the devil and his angels ; 
and that, with heretics thus condemned, all faith, 
tevery promise, and all covenants may be infringed. 
These doctrines, we know, are still believed as in- 
fallible by those who submit to the decisions of the 
council of Trent ; and while the Dragon's Beast 
possessed all his great power and authority, it is not 
astonishing, that the fiend of persecution exercised 
his sway without controul. Modern papists acknow- 
ledge, but they cannot practice their creed. Not- 
withstanding that a vast variety of irreligious intol- 
erance has been exercised in different countries 
since the establishment of the Reformation, yet the 
diminution of thjtt evil has been gradual ; and it is be- 
lieved, that an extensive desolation systematically 
organized, now to extirpate by force the Protestant 
cause, if it could be commenced, which is dubious, 
could not be protracted longer than would be requir- 
ed to transmit the mournful intelligence to the other 
nations. Torture and death for the sake of a good 
conscience, in this age have become so abhorrent, 
that it is hoped the nations have buried this out- 
rageous fury, the offspring of Babylon, in the tomb 
of annihilation ; and although eventually it may be 
resuscitated for a short period according to the pre- 
diction, Revelation ] 1 : 7 — 11 ; nevertheless, its pres- 
ent paralyzed condition justifi#s unfeigned rapture; 
and urges with overwhelming force, ceaseless aiid 
devout thanksgiving to Jehovah, for the inestimable 
immunities which we have derived instrumentally 
from the Fathers of the reformed church. 

Ail the other privileges which have accrued to us 
in consequence of the contest in which our ancestors 
in the faith and hope of the Gospel engaged and 
conquered, are rendered incalculably more valuable 
by the avenues which it opened for the establish- 
ment and increase of literature. In this vieiw> w^e. 

„2M 



S32 ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. LECTURE XIVV 

are taught to admire the mystery of divine Provi- 
dence, which combines events that, in their primary 
occurrence, appear to us to have no connection, and 
yet in subsequent periods unfold that they were in- 
dissclubly cemented. Of what utility to mankind 
comparatively would have been all the literary treas- 
ures brought by the Greeks into the Roman bounda- 
ries, after the capture of Constantinople, had not the 
types so rapidly and so extensively diffused their 
partial illumination ? and in an ecclesiastical refer- 
ence, even the discovery of printing would have 
been of inferior importaiice to the church and the 
world, without the rejection of the papal supremacy. 
The eloquence of Demosthenes and TuUy, the songs 
of Homer end Virgil, the histories of Herodotus and 
Xe ophon, and Saiiust and Caesar, the criticisms of 
Q'd* -■..'!' A ilian and Longiiius, even- the morals of Socra- 
tes, and P]ato, and Cicero, and Seneca, and Antoninus 
vv^oald have been ptomulged among mankind in vain ; 
in a fleeting admiration of the genius of the dead, 
would have evaporated all the benefits which Greece 
or Rome could have elicited. Revealed truth alone 
could r-^move the darkness of the moral world, dis- 
sipate the mists of idolatry, and the fogs of supersti« 
tion ; and they wisely judged, that the grand object 
was to consecrate typography to the multiplication 
of the Bible in the vernacular language : and it must 
not be foigotten, that this resolution involved the 
most daring rebellion against the Pope's authority, 
and the most preaumpttious defiance of all his intim- 
idating menaces. The more enlightened and artful 
dignified -upporters of the antichristian system were 
perfectly convinced, that the occlusion of the sacred 
oracles was indispensable to the permanency of their 
tremendous jurisdiction. Every species of torment 
and dr^aih was denounced against the owner and 
reader of the word of God, except certain individu- 
als, who were permitted to garble it for the nefarious 
purposes of sanctioning error ; so that the volume of 
inspiration was altogether unkaown ; and the publi- 




CENTURY XVL 283 

cation of it in Hebrew, Greek and I^atin, would have 
aided the holy cause of pure religion in a very small 
degree. God himself doubtless imhued the original 
translators of the scriptures with the hallowed de- 
sire to impart the blessings of revelation to all the 
nations in their own tongfies ; and tiiis has been in 
ii\Gvy age the most effectual mode by which Anti- 
christ has been enfeebled. But it is irrefrao;able, 
that as the advantages of printirjg would have been 
exceedingly circumscribed without the secession 
from the papacy, so the progression of truth must 
have been slow and confined had the propagation 
of books been limited to raanusci'ipts. 
■ The vast increase of learning has been of inde- 
scribable use to the church in other respects : con- 
troversies upon almost every topic successively 
arose ; and wherever the Protestants had been ena- 
bled to grasp the key of the closets that contained 
the writings which had been incarcerated in the si- 
lence of the monasteries, they dislodged them from 
their dark and dreary abodes ; and thus embodied 
scripture, reason and andiquity against the claims of 
Rome ; while the excitement produced by this in- 
cessant collision rendered it necessary for the prom- 
inent warriors in the literary condict, to arm them- 
selves with all the panoply wdiicli the store-house 
of learning could furnish. Hence, has socceded the 
multiplication of Colleges, with all the minor institu- 
tions by which the reign of dullness has been so suc- 
cessfully combated, and the supremacy of the Ro- 
man Pontiff so effectually and generally disregard- 
ed. But as a reference to modern times is anticipa- 
tion of our farther review, this enum.eration of the 
vast enjoyments social and moral, which originated 
in the erection of the standard of the Redeemer's 
cross, as the rallying point to " all them who love the 
Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity," must be closed. 

This retrospect enforces one important admoni- 
tion ; improve your advantages. Remember the toil, • 
the privations, the anxieties, the opposition, the 




284 ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. LECTURE XIV. 

dangers, and the deaths with which the Reformers 
whom we have commemorated were constantly en- 
veloped ; and demonstrate your exalted sense ol their 
philanthropy to man, and devotedness to God, by 
emulating their virtues, and by evincing your high 
estimate of their labours, in an active and sedulous 
discharge of all the duties to which your superiority 
of condition as men, as citizens, and as christians 
with unmitigable urgency calls you ! Thereby will 
you prove your title to be numbered in the cata- 
logue of those august worthies, and exhibit that grat- 
itude to God which you should ever nourish, when 
you contemplate the value of that truth which " hath 
brought life and immortality to light through the 
gospel." 

So let our lips and lives express 
The holy gospel ibe profess^ 
So let our works and virtues shine^ 
To prove the doctrine all divine. 

Thus shall we best proclaim abroad^ 
The honours of our Saviour God, 
While the salvation reigns within, 
And grace subdues the power of sine 

Religion bears our spirits up. 
While we expect that blessed hope, 
The bright appearance of the Lord, 
Aad faith stands leaning on his word^ 



j'-^ 



The Greek and Roman hierarchies — the Lutherans.^ and 
the established church of England, during the sixteenth^ 



scventfsnth and eighteenth centuries^ 



As the civil world, equally with the kingdom of 
the Redeemer, has assumed a totallj different aspect, 
since the sixteenth century ; so it is necessary to 
conduct our revif'w, if we would accurately compre- 
hend the subject, in a totally different form, and to 
distinguish the modern church, not by periods of 
time, but by associations of christians. These gene- 
ral divisions will consequently comprize — -the ancient 
hierarchies, Greek and Roman — the primary secessions 
from the popedom, the Lutheran, the Episcopal, and the 
Presbyterian — the anglo- Puritans and their descendants — - 
the most interesting and important theological controversies 
' — the minor denominations — -the American churches — the 
modern union of christians to promuJge the gospel of Jesus 
■ — and the anticipations of faith, in reference to the 
scriptural prophecies which are not yet consum- 
mated. 

It would be preferable to enumerate the major 
part of the different sects, as severed by doctrine, 
discipline and ceremonies ; but as it is impossible to 
reduce the conilicting materials into masses upon 
these general topics, we shall endeavour to illustrate 
the characteristics of the modern believers, in their 
sectarian origin, distinctions and progress. 

We have already witnessed the partial triumph, 
and the legal establishment of the Protestant cause 
in Germany, the North of Europe and the British 
dominions — therefore from that period our investiga- 
tions must commence. 



j^$6 ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. LECTURE XV. 

/. The Greek Church. 
In modern ages, this large body of nominal Ciiris- 
dains may be described in two di\asions; those who 
acknowledge the patriarchal authority of the Bishop 
of Constantinople ; and those who dissenting equally 
from the Greek and Roman Pontiffs, are directed in 
their religious doctrines and institutions solely by 
their own ecclesiastical officers, independent of ex- 
terior jurisdiction. Of these various devotees of su- 
perstition, nothing of any interest has been recorded 
since their subjection to the Turks. They are con- 
lined in the most servile vassalage to their priests— 
the patriarchs of Constantinople, Antioch, Alexan- 
dria and Jerusalem exercise unlimited sway in all 
those regions to which their jurisdiction extends ; 
and those dignified offices being entirely at the con- 
trol of the Grand Seignior, it often follows, that 
they are filled, not by the friends of religion, but by 
him who can present the largest bribe for the ap- 
pointment. Two circumstances alone, in the modern 
history of the Greeks demand notice ; the attempts 
which were made to unite them with the Papacy, 
and the overtures which were presented by Melanc- 
thon to the Constantinopolitan Patriarch for an uDiori 
with the Protestants. Insuperable diticulties howe- 
ver instantaneously appeared ; the difference in reli- 
gious sentiment was utterly irreconcilable ; the ex- 
ternal form^ and the absurd idolatrous ceremonies 
of each hierarchy w^ere so dissimilar, that it w^is im~ 
practicable to amalgamate them ; and the invincible 
obstinacy of both the parties to their antiquated cus- 
toms and traditions, proclaimed that every expecta- 
tion of harmony was delusive. The ignorance and 
the stupid infatuated prejudices of the Greeks, in 
favour of the system bequeathed to them bj their 
ancestors, also formed an insurmountable barrier to 
consociation with the Protestants; in consequence 
of which, their degradation, bigotry, and darkness 
continue almost without diminution. Of all the chiefs 
pf ih€ Greek church, one only deserves a distinct 




CENTURY XVI. 28.t 

memorial in this summary ; Cyrillus Lucar patriarch 
of"Contanlinople, who was murdered hy order of the 
grand Turk in the year 1G38; and as it is generally un- 
derstood, in consequence of his protestant predilec- 
tions. Urban VIll. then Pope, undertook the arduous 
labour to eradicate the deep-rooted antipathy which 
the Greeks had so long indulged, against the Papists. 
The ingenuity of Jesuitism was never more keenly 
tested, and the duplicity of its professors w^as never 
more plainly but artfully developed, than in the final 
endeavour to incorporate tlie Greeks with the Roman 
anti-christian hierarchy. To conciliate the Eastern 
friends of Christianity, the Jesuits declared, that no 
alteration in their Eastern doctrine or ceremonial 
observances w^as proposed, because these were of 
little importance; and they only wished to demons- 
trate to the Greeks, that the Constanlinopolitan 
opinions and worship in all essential points w^ere as- 
similated to the creed and ritual of the Romans. 

By this manoeuvre, the Jesuits proposed to convince 
the Eastern adherents of the gospel, that they had 
been ahvays actually, though not in profession, one 
with the Papists ; and that their only solicitude was 
to unfold the truth in its certain meaning, not to urge 
upon them the denial of that religion which they had 
received ft'om their predecessors. 

This sciieme was maintained by a numerous host 
of the Jesuits ; all of whom, in their innumerable vol- 
umes, without cessation proclaimed, that the Greeks, 
Russians, Nestorians, Armenians, and every other mi- 
nor denomination, of the Eastern descendants from 
the primitive ages of Messiah's Kingdom, differed 
from the Pontifical order, only in a few unmeaning 
ceremonies, and in a small number of unimportant 
metaphysical terms, by w^hich their phraseology was 
distinguished. 

The abomination of this disingenuous and corrupt 
device, was clearly discerned by Cyrillus, who, from 
personal acquaintance with the Protestant churches 
and the Romish hierarchy, was perfectly competent 




23B ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. LECTURE XlV- 

to decide upon the propriety of their respective 
claims to ainity with the Greeks. Without hesitation 
and fear, he boldly. avowed his aversion from the pa- 
pal system both in doctrine and devotion ; decidedly 
asserted his attachment to the Reformed or Calvinis- 
tic opinions and discipline ; and proposed to banish 
from fiis own church,* as far as possible, all articles of 
faith and all ceremonies in worship which were in- 
compatible with the purity and simplicity of the Gos- 
pel of Christ. Rome beheld with astonishment and 
malignity this daring assault upon her authority, and 
this irresistible counteraction of her influence and de* 
signs. An enemy of this dignity, fortitude and power 
could not be tolerated ; accordingly, the Jesuits, un- 
der the sanction of the French Ambassador, at that 
period residing in Constantinople, suborned a gang of 
false Witnesses, who accused Cyrillus of high treason 
against the state, and through the perjury and malice 
of the Jesuits, he was slaughtered. His successor in 
the patriarchate, who had been the Jesuits tool to 
destroy Lucar after some time, notwithstanding his 
partiality for the papacy, was removed from this 
world by the arm of tyrannic violence ; and as Par- 
thenius, the following Patriarch was a decided oppo- 
nent of the corruptions and ambition of the Popedom, 
all subsequent attempts, either to exterminate the 
Bishop of Constantinople appointed by Mohamed's 
successor, or to combine the discordant hierarchies, 
which the Jesuits contrived and adopted, have total- 
ly failed in execution. The exertions of the Protes- 
tants also, on a subsequent occasion, to form a coali- 
tion with the Eastern professed disciples of the Re- 
deemer, were nugatory, in consequence of their pro- 
found ignorance and bigotry; which fact most im- 
pressively instructs us, that until tne illumination of 
Christianity is generally diffused among them no hope 
of their improvement can rationally be admitted. The 
late " shaking of the nations" among the Greeks, is a 
future subject of discussion. 



i^i^.. 



CENTURIES XVI.—XVllI. 289 

//. Mystery^ Babylon the great. 
After the complete organization of the Jesuits, they 
were despatched to ail the accessible regions of the 
gh)be, professedly to convert the nations to Christia- 
nity ; but really to extend the Papal jurisdiction, and 
to procure those revenues from a distance, of which, 
in Europe, through the Reformation, the hierarchy 
had been despoiled. It is unnecessary to review 
these various attempts to extend the pontifical do- 
minions ; they were characterized by every princi- 
ple, which contradicts the purity, the candour, and 
the philanthropy of Jesus. The researches of mo- 
dern Christians have verified the fact, that these ef- 
forts of the Romish congregation for the propagation 
of the faith, whether by Jesuits, Dominicans, Fran- 
ciscans, Capuchins, Carmelites, Sulpicians, or by 
those of any other Monkish denomination, have only 
tended to render the heathens subject to their sway, 
more artful and mischievous, but not less Pagan. 

The papal system occupies a vast space on the 
map of prophecy; it is indispensable therefore, brief- 
ly to delineate its modernized condition. 

1. The Doctrines. — These have been maintained 
in all their corruption. Papists of the present day, 
in nolhino; diiTer from their ancestors of the leaden 
age ; they contend for the authority of the Pontiff's 
decisions as equivalent to the demands of divine re- 
velation; they deny the utility and importance oi 
(he sacred oracles : they plead for the perfection of 
human nature; they disregard the necessity of the 
Holy Spirit's influences : they derogate from the va- 
lue of the Redeemer's work, as the sole Mediator 
between God and man; they imphcitly bow down 
to the Pope, as visible God on earth ; they have con- 
trived to render the truth of Christianity doubtful ; 
and they combine a fallacy of opinion, and a barba- 
rism of feeling and action, with a pertinacity, not less 
than that which they exhibited, vfho justified the 
Inquisition in all its horrors. Of this truth, a recent 
fact is irrefragable evidence. During the fruitless 

2 iNj;. 



290 ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY, LECTURE XY, 

rebellion in {reb.nd, about twenty five years since, 
the Northern Protestants arrayed themselves in all 
their force, to procure from the British government, 
the recognition of their inalienable rights. It speed- 
ily appeared, however, that the Papists mingled ci- 
vil and reli2;ious questions in tlieir prospects; and 
in the ebullitions of triumph arising from primary 
success, the ostensible chieftains scrupled not to 
declare, that the extinction of the enemies of the 
church, would naturally follow the exclusion of the 
English predominance. The descendants of the 
Covenanters, of course, withdrew from persons who 
had resolved upon this outrageous close to their at- 
tempt to recover civic freedom ; and the Irish still 
grovel in penury, and groan beneath military coer- 
cion. 

But this result might rationally have been anticipa- 
ted from that wondrous x-orr jption of moi'dl principle, 
which has been introduced into the boundaries of 
the Romish Hierarchy, by the Jesuits. It must not 
be forgotten, that the present rulers ol the Beast's 
domains, are generally of this tr'jbe ; " who diminish 
the guilt of transgression, disguise the deformity of 
vice, loosen the reins to all the passions, nourish 
corruption by their dissolute precepts, and render 
the way to h^^aven, as easy, as agreeable, and as 
smooth as possible.'' 

It necessarily follows, that the practice of the 
clergy and people could not be amended, while they 
admitted these defiling tenets ; and the annals of the 
papal regio!«s testify, that in every nation where po- 
pery has hitherto predominated, and where it still 
rules without control ; the utmostdebasement of cha- 
racter is exhibited without remorse, and that nothing 
can meliorate their degraded condition, but the light 
of evangelical truth, and the individualized applica- 
tion of the gospel of Jesus. 

2. The Controversies, — The most famous, extensive 
and pernanent disputatio:i, originated in the doc- 
trines and morals of the Jesuits. So abhorrent was 



Sa^^k^^im^^ 



CENTURIES XVI.— XVIK. 291 

the corruption of both, which the disciples of Loyola 
introduced; that decent persons of the Romish com- 
munion could not admit the boundless depravation 
of theoretic truth and practical decorum, which these 
vile debauchees affirmed and promulged. 

A second controversy arose respecting the nature 
and necessity of divine grace, in which the Domini- 
cans and Jansenists defended the doctrines of Augus- 
tin, and the Jesuits supported the old Pelagian opin- 
ions : this contest agitated France and Spain partic- 
ularly, during more than a century; and was finally 
ended, partly by the tergiversation and subtilty of 
the Popes, and by the intervention of force, accom- 
panied with persecution against the Jansenists in 
every varied form. 

It is unnecessary to represent the intestine discord 
which has continually raged among the adherents of 
the Hierarchy in an augmenting ratio since the peri- 
od of the Reformation : — the consequences of these 
collisions are of more importance. The influence 
of the system has been w^onderfully impaired, and 
the temporal authority of the Pope is merely " the 
shadow of a shade" ; still it is undeniable, that the 
heterodoxy of doctrine, debasement of morals, and 
superstitions of worship, are diminished in a very 
small deo:ree in those countries from which the en- 
trance of the Protestant or Reformed principles Avas 
originally excluded. To this may be subjoined the 
fact, that the lives of the Popish clergy, in the do- 
minions of the Man of Sin, are not by any means purer 
than in the dark ages ; but rather, that the Priests 
are infidel Epicureans. 

3. Opposition to the Protestants. — This is (he most 
interesting portion of t!ie Popish ht cry, since the 
actual and authoritative settlement of the Reforma- 
tion in the different nations in which it Avas intro- 
duced. As to the pretended attempts to propagate 
the Christian faith among the heathen, they have 
been attended with little success, and with no melio- 
ration of the professed converts ; they are conse- 
quently altogether unworthy of review. 



292 ECCLESIASTICAL HiSTOKY. LECTURE XV. 

" Rome, long accustomed to dominion, and bloated 
with insolence, contrived schemes, engaged in cabals, 
excited commotions, with uninterrupted and mischiev- 
ous industry, to oppress the Protestants, and to ex- 
tii^guish the light of the glorious Reformation. The 
resources of genius, the force of arms, the seductions 
of promises, the terrors of the most formidable men- 
aces, the subtilty of disputation, the influence of fraud, 
and the arts of dissimulation ; in short, all possible 
means, open and concealed, honest and disingenuous, 
were employed for the destruction of the Protestant 
and Reformed churches." 

In the Austrian dominions, commenced the oppres- 
sions and persecutions of the seceders from the 
Popedom. The most sacred obligations and treaties 
were violated ; while in Bohemia particularly, a res- 
olute military resistance was organized, which was 
displayed in the election of a Protestant king, and 
the rejection of the Austrian authority :-— but this 
event which, ifit had proved successful, would liave 
been almost tantamount to the demolition of the 
Papacy, was, by a mysterious Providence, rendered 
abortive. James, king of England, refused to aid the 
new monarch, although Frederick had married his 
daughter ; and the Papists were aided by John, the 
Lutheran Elector of Saxony — exhibiting this remark- 
able anomaly ; a successor of that Elector who had 
defended Luther against the Pope and Charles V. 
combined in the cause of popery and persecution 
against the reformed Protestants, gloriously asserting 
their Christian privileges, and the rights of con- 
science. Speedily after, the Emperor virtually ab- 
rogated the former treaty of Augsburg, by which the 
privileges of the protestants had been solemnly guar- 
anteed and sanctioned with tlie national faith ; for 
he issued an outrageous ordinance, denotninated the 
edict of restitution ; by which the reformed were com- 
manded, without delay to restore to the Monks and 
Jesuits, all the property secured to them by the reli- 
gious peace. This edict was enforced by sanguinary 



CENTURIES XVI. XVllI. 293' 

ruffians in military array, encouraged by the enthu- 
siastic, covetous, mahgnant and merciless Friars and 
Jesuits, v/ho attended to encourage the rapine and 
butchery, and then to grasp the spoil. 

When the misery and depopulation which flowed 
jVom this iniquitous tyranny were reported to the 
Emperor, the royal barbarian calmly replied, "ma/w" 
mus regnum vastatum^ quam damnatum ; I would rather 
that the kingdom should be deserted, than damned." 
The Lord, however, animated Gustavus of Sweden, 
to defend the liberties of mankind against this impe- 
rial blood-sucker ; and although he died during the 
war, yet his spirit survived him ; until after the lapse 
of ihiriy years, the nations having exhausted their 
treasures and their energies, this ardent contest 
which had been prolonged with the most unrelenting 
animosity was terminated. The result of the war 
was a refusal of their religious privileges to the Prot- 
estants ; but they obtained a restoration of the prop- 
erty of which they had been illegally divested. 

In Hungary, Poland, Germany, and in the vallies 
of Piedmont, the protestants, at different periods, ex- 
perienced every variety of suffering. All the ebulli- 
tions of papal fury were occasionally exhibited ; and 
as often as impunity permitted, confiscation, impris- 
onment, and carnage, with all the horrible appenda- 
ges attached to the devastations of a lawless undis- 
ciplined gang of armed fanatics, stimulated by sen- 
suality and plunder, were the wretched allotment of 
the faithful followers of the Lamb. 

In Spain, the insatiable cupidity of the Inquisitors 
and their agents for the wealth of the descendants of 
the original Saracens, finally produced an edict from 
the bigotted tool of Rome, their king, that all the 
Moors without exception, should be immediately 
banished from his dominions, and transported to the 
coast of Barbary ; from that period, the Spaniards 
have been the most debased, and servile, and stupid- 
ly superstitious of all the European nations ; in short, 
nothing but generations of ignorant, deluded, lazy, 



294 ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. LECTURE XV. 

corrupt, cruel, priest-ridden devotees, without one 
noble human characteristic. 

The Huguenots of France experienced the desola- 
ting force of the papal storm. Henrj IV. a Protes- 
tant, had finally attained the throne of France ; but 
to obtain the undisputed possession of his govern- 
ment, he became a nominal papist. To protect his 
Protestant friends, bj whose instrumentality he had 
vanquished all opposition ; he promulged the famous 
edict of JYantz. In consequence of the advantages 
secured by this royal instrument and declaration, 
the Protestants enjoyed every possible immunity ; 
they possessed fortified places as a pledge, for their 
rights; and public lands were allotted, as revenues 
for their ministers of the gospel, and the pay of their 
garrisons. During twenty years under this pacific 
system, the Huguenots increased prodigiously in 
numbers, wealth and influence. After Louis XIII. 
had attained the years of maturity ; Cardinal Riche- 
lieu, a. furious, bigotted, Jesuitical son of the Mother 
of Abominations, proposed to the king that the pri-. 
vileges granted to the Protestants bj the edict of 
Nantz, should be withdrawn ; and deceitfully inti- 
mated, that the peace of the kingdom, and the pros- 
perity of the church were inseparably connected 
with the recision of that decree. Accordingly, Ro- 
chelle the chief fortress was besieged, and the garri- 
son having been reduced to starvation, were obliged 
to surrender ; after thirteen, out of eighteen thou- 
sand of the inhabitants, had been immolated as a 
sacrifice to the papal Moloch. Argument, persua- 
sions, sophistry, and bribes were all in vain used to 
seduce the protestants into the embrace of the Mo- 
ther of Harlots. Perfidy having been found ineflici- 
ent; brutality and power were tried to coerce and 
destroy those " of whom the world was not worthy." 
Inhuman laws dictated by bigotted rage, oppressions 
invented by infernal malice, and cruel persecution 
in its utmost barbarity overwhelmed '^ the house'> 'Id 
of faith." Legions of dragoons with unintermittin^ 



CENTURIES XVI. XVIII. 295 

fury and expedition accompanied the Jesuits to make 
converts, or to participate in the croisade ; some 
became idolaters, others migrated, flying from their 
families, friends, and home ; but these were few, 
coiitr.ibted with the myriads of the believers, who, 
animated by the fortitude of Christianity, feared not 
them ^' that kill the body," but most heroically and 
constantly "' witnessed a good confession." At last, 
fatioue J with minor cruelties ; Louis XIV. reo^ardless 
of ail obligations, and " all laws, human and divine," 
exemplified the c«irdinal doctrine of modern popery, 
"no iciiih is to be kept with heretics ;" for in 1686, 
he .diiiallod the edict of Nantz, thus depriving the 
Huguenots of their conscientious privileges, and 
enjoining upon them an immediate subjection to the 
Man of Sin, and the reception of his blasphemies. 

More than two millions of people were by this 
measure, divested of dUthe enjoyments and pleas of 
common humanity. Those who were impeded from 
migratiiig to other countries, were exposed to every 
indigiiity, and were assailed with all the barbarity, 
which a Jesuit's diabolical malevolence, and a pro- 
fessional murderer's cruel licentiousness combined 
could invent and inflict : they were burned on the 
Lord's day in multitudes, when assembled for divine 
worship ; if they endeavoured to escape, they were 
tossed into the fire at the point of the bayonet : they 
were roasted singly and in small companies before 
slow fires— they were gibbeted alive, and left to starve 
and be devoured by carnivorous birds — they were 
drowned as food for the fishes — they were suffocated 
by the most tedious modes of strangling — they were 
racked until their whole frame was dislocated : then 
they were permitted to live maimed, displaying eve*- 
ry possible species of corporeal mutilation; or after 
having been thus reduced to poverty and helpless- 
ness were banished to England, Holland, or Ger- 
many, there to remain mementos of Papal benevo- 
lence, and Christian consistency and fortitude. — 
The earlier scenes of the French revolution exhibit? 



296 ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. LECTURE XV. 

ti wondrous re-action in human affairs ; and a right- 
eous retribution upon the antichristian hierarchy for 
the direful calamities which they effused upon the 
Huguenots. 

After the edict of Nantz had existed nearly 100 
years, having been granted by Henry, who was mur- 
dered by the Jesuits, his second successor revoked 
it; and about 100 years subsequent to its being an- 
nulled, the second successor also of him who abol- 
ished that charter of liberty and religion, beheld the 
French portion of the Beast's domain alienated from 
his sway ; and heard the Popish Infidels pronounce 
the sentence, which condemned him to a violent 
death, similar to that which his protestant predeces- 
sor had realized from their traitorous ancestors, — 
These analogies are too remarkable to escape the 
notice of an observer of divine Providence. 

In Sweden, Denmark, Holland, and the Swiss pro- 
testant cantons, no attempts of importance have been 
made to restore the " Son of perdition ;" but in Brit- 
ain every machination was contrived. The destruc- 
tion of the whole legislature by gunpowder, involving 
the King and his son, was a Jesuitical plot to usurp 
the sovereignty. Charles 1. was no more than a semi- 
protestant, with very strong attachments to the Pa- 
pacy; and his successors after the protectorate of 
Cromwell, who, in truth, consolidated the protes- 
tant religion, was not only a disguised Papist, but 
treacherously sold himself to the apostate hierarchy 
for money, and by treaty secretly engaged to re-place 
the whole antichristian corruption. The Lord in 
his mercy to that nation, permitted William III. t® 
dispossess the next tyrant, James, who was an avow- 
ed adherent of the Pope ; and from the revolution in 
1688, no scheme to establish the Beast's supremacy, 
except two trifling endeavors to recover the throne 
for James' descendants, has hitherto been executed. 

Before this review of the Papal system is termina- 
ted ; it is necessary to remark, that since the Refor- 
mation a large number of persons of superior intelli- 



CEKTUlllES XVI. XVIII. 297 

gence has appeared among the papists, especially in 
France; and tliat the effect which might have been 
anticipated was displayed : the mere Philosophers, 
despising the solemn mummeries of the priestcraft, 
became Infidels; and the illuminated Theologians 
were almost Protestants ; hence, the temporary 
overthrow of the antichristian fabric in that nation, 
must be attributed to thegiadual accessions ofknow- 
ledge, which in various modes penetrated the Egyp- 

^ tian darkness, until its blaze emitted splendors too 
potent for the silly devotees; and which, instead of 

•^producing the ordiiiary effects of light, larger capa- 
city and a more extended sphere of usefulness, stu- 
pified them with its magnificent rays, and struck thein 
with infatuation. 

///. The Lutherans, 
The standard compendium of doctrines that all 
the Lutherans professedly adopt, are the Confession 
of Augsburg, the articles of Smalcald, and Luther's 
catechisms ; w^hich are essentially in unison with 
the Helvetic and the Reformed creeds of faith. — 
With respect to the ceremonies of worship, many 
disputes arose, which were at last compromised by 
a compact, that every congregation might adopt its 
own ritual, provided that every rite palpably erro- 
neous and superstitious should be excluded; from 
this cause, a vast diversity in the exterior forms 
of devotion subsists among the Lutherans ; some 
retaining a considerable portion of the Romish pomp, 
while others approximate the simplicity of the re- 
formed institutions. Considerable difference of opi- 
nion is discernible among the followers of Luther 
respecting the mode of church government: strictly, 
it is neither an episcopacy nor presbyterian, except 
ia Sweden and Denmark, where the episcopal au- 
thority is merely a name-, and hence, they are dissi- 
milar in their sentiments and practice; combining a 
species of episcopal superintendence in one district,^ 
and in another section, a ministerial parity assembled 
in svnod, without iurisdiction over the separate con- 

2 O 



298 ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. LECTURE VX, 

gregations. The Lutherans generally incorporate 
liturgies or forms of prayer in their external devo- 
tions : but these differ in their matter and extent, al* 
though uniform in doctrine and object: they also 
celebrate a variety of festivals, introduced from the 
catalogue of superstition, to memorialize past events 
and the deceased saints; but in the number of these, 
they disagree, and in this Union, it is believed, 
they are generally omitted. But in nothing is the 
character of the Lutheran church more disgraced* 
than in the extreme laxity of ecclesiastical dicipline i 
this topic affords almost ceaseless pain to the faith- 
ful ministers of the gospel, and is a constant sub- 
ject of reproach among the Papists, even in Europe ; 
yet from late scrutiny, it appears, that in this aspect 
that denomination gradually meliorating. Respect- 
ing the changes in the Lutheran church, they 
have been scarcely perceptible ; it has preserved, 
including the minor delineations already enumerated, 
amid the fluctuations of Europe, an almost uniform 
similarity to its general portrait, as determined by 
the original treaty of religious peace at Augsburg ; 
and with respect to its geographical boundaries, ex- 
cept the Lutheran churches founded in these states, 
it has neither received enlargement, nor experienced 
restriction to any extent, or of any magnitude. 

The benefits of the Reformation in merely a litera- 
ry view, were extensively enjoyed by the Lutherans, 
and they have largely contributed to the mass of 
knowledge. Upon theological subjects, they have 
furnished a vast fund of invaluable matter for the im- 
provement of mankind: but it must not be omitted, 
that the modern Lutherans have very materially di- 
verged from the belief of their ancestors. Luther 
and his co adjutors, Zuinglius and his contempora- 
ries. Calvin and his associates were indubitably uni- 
ted in principle, except in church government, and 
the manner in which Christ is present in the Lord's 
Supper. On two fundamental points of the gospel, 
many of the European christians have totally apos- 



CENTURIES XVI. — XVUl. 299 

tatized from the truth as it is in Jesus, as well as the 
doctrinal interpretation of the primitive Reformers. 
By considerable numbers oi the moderns who nomi- 
nally belong to that church, the divine character of 
Jesus Christ is[peremptorily denied, so that they have 
gone astray into the error of Socinus: and the doctrine 
of justification by faith, which Luther proclaimed arti- 
culus stantis vel cadentis ecclesice, the article of the 
church, by which it stands or falls, has been obscu- 
red by the propagation of Pelagius' heretical delu- 
sions. 

The controversies which have arisen in the Luthe- 
ran church, since the death of that Reformer, were 
attended with baleful effects. In J 548, Charles V. 
issued an edict called the interim, containing all 
the principal doctrines of Popery, masked under an 
ambiguity of expression which admitted of as many 
explications as interpreters; and of course, equally 
objectionable to an illiterate bigotted Papist, as to 
a conscientious enlightened Protestant. Melancthon, 
all whose other dignified characteristics were deteri- 
orated by a timidity which knew no bounds, and by 
a suppositious expediency, always shifting as the 
continually varying events required, adapted his e- 
qui vocal conduct to the emergency; and avowed his 
opinion, that in matters indifferent, the imperial 
edicts should be obeyed. This principle in ordina- 
ry situations might have been admissible; but in this 
dilemma, it was almost tantamount to a dereliction 
of the Protestant cause. Among the things indif event, 
this most estimable but pusiilanimous man, to evade 
the wrath of the Emperor, inscnhed, justification by 
faith alone ; the necessity of good ivories to salvation ; 
the number of the Sacraments : the papal and episcopal 
jurisdiction; e:Lirenic loiciiou. : and a large proportion 
of the idolatrous ceremonial indissolubly intertwined with 
the Papal system. These admissions produced a 
long and violent contention, denominated the adiapho- 
ristic controversy ; which was the source of prodigious 
discord ; and in its effects was extremely prejudicial 



300 ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. LECTURE XT. 

to the progress of the light and the truth. To this 
cause, may be imputed all the controversies which 
successively disturbed the harmony of the Lutheran 
church during 100 years, and also the inefficacy of 
every attempt which was made to unite the disciples 
ofZuingleand Calvin with the adherents of Luther. 
In the early part of the seventeenth century, the lat- 
ter lost two princes from their body ; the landgrave 
of Hesse and the elector of Bradenburgh ; who were 
dissatisfied primarily with the doctrine of consubstan- 
tiation, and afterwards with the aberration of the 
Ministers from their acknowledged standard of theo- 
logical doctrines. A subsequent attempt to com- 
bine in fraternal bonds the two general divisions of 
the Protestants, engendered great disputation and 
w as attended with no success ; and a reform, or re- 
turn to the principles and morals of the pristine Re- 
formers, which was introduced by the Pietists, as 
they were contemptuously denominated, although 
it produced great temporary excitement, finaliy 
disappeared without much actual advantage. It 
must however bs mentioned, that the estabHshment 
of the Bible Societies has already eiiected a very 
important change in the Lutheran church ; and that 
in the Prussian dominions, very lately, the Lutherans 
and Calvmists have formed a general union, which 
may eventually concatenate these dissentients into 
one compact body : but these topics belong to re- 
searches connected with the history of the Church 
during the present generation. 

IV. The established Church of England, 
The measures of Henry VIII. with regard to the 
church, only tended to exterminate the Beast's eccle- 
siastical authority. By law, the Pope's jurisdiction 
was totally abolished ; but the antichristian errors 
remained; hence Luther jocosely remarked, that 
" Henry killed the Pope's body, his supremacy, but 
preserved his soul, the false doctrines." During 
Edward's reign ; the prohibition against the marriage 
of priests was annulled ; masses were forbidden ; 



CENTURIES XVI. XVIJI. 301 

Ihe communion in both kinds was administered ; the 
popish altars were removed ; the images were 
expelled from the churches; the Scriptures and the 
forms of prayer, with the whole service of the liturgy 
were publicly read in the English language ; contin- 
ual amendments were introduced into the whole ec- 
clesiastical polity, and the progress of the Reforma- 
tion was unceasing and irresistible. 

" One sinner destroyeth much good." Edward hav- 
ing been translated to Paradise, his sister, appropri- 
ately called. Bloody Mary^ reversed all the legal e- 
nactments ; repealed all the evangelical ordinances ; 
displaced all the married ministers of the gospel ; 
restored the whole mass of superstitious ceremonies ; 
re-established the papal authority in all its terrific 
majesty ; and eventually promulged the great excom- 
munication against all those who possessed the lands 
of the Monks and Nuns and Friars, provided they 
were not surrendered without delay to their former 
occupants ; thus resuscitating the iniquity which had 
been entombed. The consequences of this latter 
measure, had it been carried into eflfect, no person 
can divine ; as a large portion of the confiscated 
domains had been so transferred, that it would have 
involved the kingdom in one general commotion and 
confusion. She died, prior to the adoption of the 
measures necessary to accomplish her design; and 
the elevation of Elizabeth to the throne, dissipated 
all the schemes and expectations of" then nclean 
spirit, who like frogs, come out of the mouth of the 
dragon, and out of the mouth of the beast, and out of 
the mouth of the false prophet." 

Although these vicissitudes appear to us most 
stupendous, yet the then existing system admitted of 
such changes with the utmost facility. The distinc- 
tion between Protestantism and Popery was then 
scarcely discernible : for the unenlightened multi- 
tudes had never seen the Bible ; they perceived no- 
thing, but the identical buildings called churches, 
with the same men arrayed in their gorgeous drapery; 



302i ECCLESIASTICAL H ISTORV. LECTURE XV- 

they heard the same prayers mumbled over in their 
usual order ; and their ignorant capacities were too 
obtuse to comprehend discrepancies without a diffe- 
rence. Except the comparatively few ecclesiastical 
dignitaries, the mass of the clergy and laity were 
impelled solely by the arbitrary mandate of a tyrant 
armed with the means of irresistible coercion. Many 
persons commenced infuriated Papists with Henry ; 
became Semi-Protestants in accordance with his op- 
position to the Pope ; were almost reformed Puritans 
under Edward; exhibited the highest features of 
Dominican malevolence while Mary swayed ; and 
under Elizabeth, lived and died staunch Episcopa- 
lians of the established church of England. This 
marvellous and mysterious masquerading can only 
be satisfactorily unravelled, by the recollection, 
that the characteristics of both systems as then exhi- 
bited and felt , v^ere immensely different from their 
influence and operation at the present era ; and 
that self-interest was almost universally the sole 
spring of action. 

Elizabeth discovering that the predominance of 
the Protestant religion was indispensable to her per- 
sonal safety, and the security of her throne ; at length 
directed, that all ecclesiastical affairs should be re- 
appointed as in the reign of Edward. But the 
Queen was a Semi-Papist in her principles and prac- 
tice ; for she long retained the most senseless 
and infantile appendage of the Romish idolatry, 
the crucifix with the lighted tapers perennially burn- 
ing before it ; she ajBfected to be vehemently incen- 
sed against all the married preachers of the gospel ; 
she would never hear any sermons, but during the 
popish season of Le7it , and in short preserved, as 
far as it was possible for her to perpetuate the resem- 
blance, all the exterior pomp, and superstitious appa- 
ratus of the Apostate hierarchy : the same authority, 
and the same diocesan episcopacy which the Roman 
pontiff had ordained, was scrupulously retained, and 
have been as invidiously and pertinaciously prolong- 
ed even until this generation. 



CENTURIES XVI. XV ill. 3Q3 

Amon^ the abominable measures which this she 
Pope enacted, for Elizabeth was not less tjraat^ical 
in England, than Hildebrand at Rome, (lie aci of um^ 
formity is pre-eminent: by the operation of this la'v^ 
ever) person wlicther of the clergy or laity was obli 
g(^A to conform to her requisitions in doctrine or Wel- 
sh ip, or was exposed to the imputation of heresy, 
with the assurance of this termagant's displea- 
sure. By her directions, the censures of the Pope in 
the liturgy were erased, and the corporal presence 
of (Jhrist in the bread was tacitly admitted ; the va- 
rious sacerdotal vestments, the marks of the Beast 
were prescribed; the several orders of the clergy 
were established ; the cathedral services, fasts, fes- 
tivals, the sign of the cross in baptism ; the reading 
of the apocrypha; the divine right of the Bishops; 
with a vast catalogue of the Romish trumpery were 
all incorporated in the national church as essential 
to her existence. These hou ever were opposed by 
the Reformers without effect. 

The men who were designated as Puritans, had 
migrated from England to Germany speedily after 
Edward's death ; and these imbibed an unconquera- 
ble prediliction for the purer and more simple forms 
of worship, adopted in Switzerland and at Geneva. 
After Elizabeth's accession to the government, they 
returned to England, trusting that they should enjoy 
peace and liberty of conscience as a remuneration 
for their sufferings ; but the Queen's haughty temper 
and Popish attachments disappointed their anticipa- 
tions. The first source of discord was the papal 
garments ; these the Puritans wisely judged ought 
to be banished, as they were always associated with 
the remembrances of popery, and served to prolong 
its controul over the ignorant multitude, who were 
more easily deluded by sensible magnificence, then af- 
fected by spiritual truth. As the continuance of con- 
troversy invariably amplifies its original bQundiiries,so 
these disputers were speedily involved in contentions 
upon a more important subject, tbe m^ide of church 



304 ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. LECTURE XV. 

government ; and as this has been the barrier be- 
tween the modern episcopahans and ahnost all the 
other existing denominations ; it is necessary to de- 
velope precisely the topics ofaltercatiop. 

The first English Reformers contended, that only 
two offices exisled in the church by Christ's ap- 
pointment ; that of Bishop or Presbyter, for the 
words are synonymous in the New Testament, and 
that of Deacon. But since Bancroft propagated his 
fallacy, that the Bishops in England are an order 
superior to priests, jure divino, by divine right ; the 
English Episcopal church has denied the validity 
of the ordinations of all other preachers, except the 
Papists ; thus exhibiting a novelty on earth ; a cliurch 
excommunicated by the Pope from whom they pro- 
fess to derive their authority, and for whose speedy 
destruction they constantly pray ; and at the same 
time, declaring that all who unite with them in re- 
jecting the papal sway, and the anti-christian abom- 
inations of Rome, have no part in the covenant of 
mercy ; and if it were possible to exceed this almost 
incredible absurdity, it is found in the fact, that, 
neither the Episcopalians in Scotland and Ireland, 
nor those in the United States, are recognized by the 
English hierarchy as true sons of the Church ; none 
of them being legally admitted into an English pul- 
pit or benefices, without re-ordination by a Prelate 
who boasts of his regular descent from Pope Joan. 

The Episcopalians under Elizabeth contended, 
that the removal of Corruption and the extermination 
of error from the church was the prerogative of the 
governing civil magistrate — this principle the Puri- 
tans flatly denied; and affirmed that it was the sole 
duty of the officers and members of the church to ef- 
fect the necessary reformation. This was interpreted, 
to imply a want of allegiance to the tyrannic Queen's 
supremacy. 

Elizabeth's commissioners affirmed that in all 
questions of theology, respecting doctrine and dis- 
pline, not only the scriptures, but the writings 



^jm'' 



eENTURlL.. XYI. XVUI. 305 

of the Fathers of the primitive ages ought to be ad- 
(Uiced as oracular . In reply, the Puritans declared ; 
that the sacred oraches are the only standard of truth, 
and the sole directory of worship; and that neither 
anc'cnt institutions nor human writings however val- 
uable, except as evidences of facts, are of any autho- 
rity, upon subjects which the word of God alone can 
decide. This was stigmatized as rebellion against 
the divinely appointed rulers of the church. 

These pretended successors of Peter asserted, 
that the Romish hierarchy was a true church; that 
the Pontiifof the Vatican was a lawful and veritable 
Bishop ; and that the persons ordained by him were 
duly authorized Pastors of the church. This posi- 
tion was evidently necessary -to justify their semi- 
blasphemous titles — your Grace^ most reverend and 
right reverend Lord and Father in God^ and also to se- 
cure their terrestrial dignities m\d. princily revenues and 
power \ thus deriving their honour and emoluments, 
by uninterrupted succession from "the Prince of the 
Apostles." Gn the contrary, the Puritans reproached 
the apostate system, as a mere political contrivance 
of spiritual despotism, altogether alien from the gos- 
pel ; the head of it as "Antichrist and the Man of 
Sin ;" its destructive doctrines and discipline as idol- 
atrous, and diametrically opposed to " pure and un- 
defiled religion ;" and consequently, they discarded 
all communion with it, and considered all similarity 
to it in theory or practice, as dangerous, and a fla- 
grant departure from genuine Christianity. 

The episcopal controvertists alleged, that the form 
of church government established by Constantine and 
his successors was more perfect than that which had 
been instituted by our Lord and his Apostles — the 
Puritans repelled the unholy insinuation ; and main- 
tained, that every necessary ecclesiastical rule was 
revealed in the New Testament the only standard of 
order, discipline and devotion. 

Elizabeth's sub-tyrants proclaimed, that things in 
themselves indifferent^ which are neither enjoined 

2 P 



306 



ECCLESiASTlCAt HISTORY, 



LECTURE XT. 





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nor prohibited in scripture ; particularly external 
ceremonies of worship, the robes of the ministers, 
forms of prayer, religious festivals, with other simi- 
lar institutes, might be authoritatively enacted by 
the civil magistrate ; and that disobedience to such 
regulations was an act of rebellion against the state. 
In reply to this position, the Puritans retorted, that 
it was an indecent usurpation to impose, as indispen- 
sable, that which the Redeemer had revealed, and 
which the Hierarchs themselves admitted to be mdif' 
ferent ; and especially that those rites and ceremonies 
which had already been incorporated with an idola- 
trous system, and the use of which revived and per- 
petuated superstitious impressions, instead of be- 
ing estimated as indiffermt^ should be discarded as 
anti-evangelical and impious. This was pronoun- 
ced contempt for the regal and episcopal jurisdiction. 
To enforce uniformity and obedience to these 
claims, a court was established called the high com- 
mission ; armed with spite and myrmidons, to subdue 
the conscientious and refractory Puritan. They 
were authorized to extort answers to every inquiry 
which they propounded, by the rack, or any other 
torture or imprisonment— their sentence was perfect- 
ly arbitrary ; and they exhibited in the audacity of 
their impositions, as articles oi faith, and in their 
refinements of cruelty, all the iniquitous barbarity 
and appalling torments of a consummate Dominican 
Inquisition. One circumstance connected with this 
subject, stamps the ecclesiastical governors of tliat 
period with indelible infamy ; that the Puritans 
whom they robbed, starved, scourged, mercilessly 
afflicted, imprisoned, exiled, hanged or burnt, most 
sificerely believed all the articles of christian faith, 
publicly established and promulged, as the theologi- 
cal creed of the English nation. Hence at the period 
of Elizabeth's death, the people were scarcely more 
reformed from Popery, than when Mary assumed the 
government. 



CENTURIES XYL XVllI. 307 

The doctrines of the established church of England 
are decidedly calvinistic ; and no persons of contrary 
opinions were admitted to oiliciate as Ministers 
among them, until the latter end of James' reign. — 
This monarch, it had been hoped, would moderate 
the arrogance of the episcopal claims, and afford 
peace to the persecuted Puritans. A few years prior 
to the death of Elizabeth, he publicly declared that 
" the English liturgy was an evil said mass ; wanting 
nothing but the elevation of the host," and having 
charged all the Scotch to stand stedfast in the pres- 
byterian faith, he added, '^ as long as I brook my 
life I shall do the same." But immediately after he 
was established king of England, his popish predi- 
lections w^ere developed ; his motto was, " no bishop^ 
no king ;" and a resohite design to introduce popery 
was evinced. Every measure which the ecclesiasti- 
cal usurpers supposed was accommodated to counte- 
ract the Puritans was adopted : the Calvinistic doc- 
trines were denied — high-toned arminianism was 
substituted — the objectors to the antichristian cha- 
racteristics of the established church were persecu- 
ted in every possible form — treaties with the Popish 
princes were ratified for the most abhorrent objects, 
the overthrow of civil and religious freedom; and as 
if the royal and episcopal governments had resolved 
to secure the effusion of divine wrath upon themselves 
and the nation, they issued " the book of sports ;*' by 
which all persons were commanded ^' immediately 
after public worship on the Lord's day, to engage in 
'^sjjorts and pastimes^ revelling and drinking^^^ to verify that 
they were not Puritans. 

Charles L proceeded upon his father's system, and 
sedulously endeavoured to extend the royal preroga- 
tive above all law ; to subject every person to the 
episcopacy ; and to restore the national church as 
nearly as possible, to the exterior appearance stamp- 
ed upon it by the Dragon's Beast. To accomplish 
these objects ; he attempted to introduce the episco- 
pal hierarchy into Scotland by military force ; the 



308 EGCXESIASTICAL HIST©Rr. LECTirr.E XV, 

Puritans were disgraced with every species of perso- 
nal indignity, and tormented by every kind of suffer- 
ing ; and the most farcical portions of ail the ceremo- 
nial buffoonery practiced at Rome, were publicly em- 
bodied in the legalized ritual by Laud, Archbishop 
of Canterbury. These outrageous proceedings, in 
connection with the attempt to exterminate the Refor- 
mation in Ireland in 1641, by the butchery of the 
Protestants; which was sanctioned if not absolutely 
commanded by Charles ; and during which slaughter, 
it is supposed not less than 100,000 Protestants were 
massacred in the most inhuman and execrable forms ; 
eventually excited resistance in arms. After a civil 
contest, which continued with prodigious fury during 
several years, which desolated the kingdom through 
all its departments, and in which. Laud and his prin- 
cipal coadjutors were executed under the forms of 
law, or died in battle ; Charles himself was beheaded ; 
and a military government controled the affairs of 
the nation. 

To evince the necessity of this change, however 
deplorable were the means by which it was effected ; 
it is not superfluous to state, that Laud and his inferior 
agents, promulged that the Pope is not Antichrist—m 
the church of Rome is no hazard of damnation — -no idolatry 
exists in that church. Crucifixes, altars and images 
were erected in the houses of devotion, and ador d; 
the invocation of saints was pronounced lawful; the 
seven Sacraments and all the orders of popish minis- 
ters were declared scriptural; extreme unction was 
affirmed to be laudable ; purgatory was maintained ; 
the corporal presence of Christ in the wafer was de- 
fended ; the superstitious celebration of festivals was 
asserted; the most licentious abuse and profanation 
of the Lord's day was regularly inculcated by the 
Mmisters, enjoined by law, and practiced by ihe^ 
episcopal royalists, under severe penalties; sermo- 
nizing was contemned as unnecessary ; and the Lit- 
urgy which Charles and Laud endeavoured to impose 
upon the Scotch nation was fdled with* the venom of 



CENTURIES XVI. XV III. .309 

popery. The temporary demolition of the regal and 
episcopal supremacy exterminated the poison. — 
Dsjring Cromwell's protectorate, the puritans in- 
creased in numbers, opulence, learning, and inllu- 
ence ; and firmly laid the corner stone of that temple 
of freedom in Britain, which no subsequent machina- 
tions of despotism have been sufficiently powerful to 
subvert and raze : and it must also now be admitted, 
that the revolution of aflairs which occurred from the 
death of Charles L to the inauguration of his son, 
was indubitably necessary to deliver the nation from 
papal glooiT, and the deba sing fetters of an absolute 
mofr-irchy. 

Charles IT, was established upon the thrpneofhis 
ancestors; and one of his first laws was an " act of 
uniformity;" enforcing upon all ministers, to sub- 
scribe " to all and every thing contained in the book 
of common prayer;'' declaring the ordination of all 
the Puritans null and void ; and requiring them to 
submit to be re-ordained by the bishops. This out- 
rageous "violation of all laws, human and divine," 
ejected 2000 of the most pious, enlightened, and 
laborious preachers from the national church; who 
suffered every species of contumelious injury and 
deprivation for their adhesion to the principles of the 
gospel of Christ. To avoid the suspicion of Puritan- 
ism and Non-conformity, the religious principles and 
devotions of their friends were caricatured in the 
theatre, and ridiculed in the church ; and the Court 
and Clergy, with their adherents then first denomina- 
ted Tories, to avoid the charge of hypocrisy, exhibited 
the utmost debauchery of manners, and a heterodoxy 
of sentiments which can scarcely be classified. With 
few exceptions, it was a sceptical indifference on 
points of christian doctrine ; while the standard of 
morals was little superior to that which Cicero had 
promulged. The retrogression to the Romish aposta- 
cy was gradual; and had James been equally artful as 
Charles, it might have succeeded ; but the Lord graci- 
ously permitted " Judas t© display his cloven foot," 



no 



ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. 



LECTURE X\ 



"'liM 

4 



before the national hierarchy had imbibed a sufficient 
attachment for his Satanic majesty, voluntarily to sub- 
mit to his jurisdiction. James, after a short reign, 
abandoned the government to William of Holland, 
who had married his daughter, a decided reformed 
Protestant. Since that period, the established 
church of England has preserved much similarity of 
character; vihich was never more accurately deli- 
neated, than by the famous Lord Chatham ; " We have 
n Calvinistic creed^ a popish liturgy^ and an Arminian cler- 
gy!''' At present, however, the condition of the Brit- 
ish episcopalians is meliorating; their doctrines from 
the pulpit are becoming more consistent with their 
thirty nine articles, and a higher strain of evangeHcal 
unction is commingling with their expositions of the 
gospel ; the number of faithful zealous ministers 
rapidly augments, who combine a liberality ofsenti- 
njent, and an urbanity of intercourse with the des- 
cendants of the Puritans, unknown to former gene- 
rations ; that Laodicean lukewarmness which had 
overspread the whole establishment during more 
than a century, is gradually disappearing ; and the 
freshness and vigour of active exertion to promote 
and extend the spiritual kingdom of our Lord and 
Saviour Jesus Christ, begin to unfold themselves in a 
copious emission of the terrestrial fruits of righteous- 
ness, with the verdant foliage and enchanting blos^- 
soms of a blissful immortality. 



The reformed churches of Switzerland — Geneva — France, 
— the Vandois — Bohemia — Poland-^the JVetherlands — 
and the established church of Scotland^ from the Refor- 
mation to the commencement of the nineteenth century. 



It has already been recorded, that among the dis- 
senters fVom the Romish hierarchy, who appeared 
at the commencement of the sixteenth century, an 
important division in sentiment existed upon three 
general topics : the nature of Christ's presence in the 
Sacrament of the Supper ; the external forms of de- 
votion ; and the mode of church-government. The 
doctrine and practice of Luther and his disciples on 
these subjects, constituted an insurmountable barrier 
to general union, and hence arose the various bod- 
ies, although not equally restricted, accurately de- 
nominated Presbyterian. 

When the scattered adversaries of the Pope com- 
menced their spiritual warfare; they were in a great 
degree ignorant of the subjects which afterwards 
excited such violent controversies among them,- and 
it is probable, that they were principally interested 
in one point only, their secession from the apostacy ; 
for however widely they subsequently differed ; in 
their invincible antipathy to the Man of Sin and his 
antichristian abominations, they all were unanimous. 
But when the success of their primary opposition per- 
mitted them to review all the diversified traditions 
which the gospel condemned; an inquiry arose res- 
pecting the extent to which reform should be limited. 
The Lutherans and English episcopalians, from a 
variety of causes which have been narrated, were 
arrested in the work of renovation ; but the churches. 



312 KdCLESlASTICAL HISTOtlY. LECTURE XTI. 

generalij designated as reformed^ not being obstruc- 
ted by the same impediments, enlarged their vievs 
and purification ; with an inflexible resolution if 
practicable, to assimilate the modern church to the 
primitive apostolic exemplar. 

This august system was originally adopted by 
Zuingle in Switzerland, who decidedly and equally 
opposed the transubstantiating absurdities of Rome, 
and Luther's not less preposterous consubstantiation. 
He was also determinately averse from all the cere- 
monial insignificant apendages to devotion, which the 
Roman Pontiffs had successively consecrated ; im- 
ages, altars, wax-tapers, exorcism, and auricular 
confession; andthewh©le episcopacy was virtually 
abrogated by the tendency of his doctrines. Calvin, 
quickly after the death of Zuingle, removed to Ge- 
neva ; and extended the theory of the Swiss reformer, 
until it assumed nearly the same conformation which 
it still displays; the spiritual character of the Lord's 
supper, the total exclusion of every attempt to im- 
press divine truth by the medium of the senses alone, 
and the perfect equality of all the Ministers of the 
gospel. To these points was superadded the insti- 
tution of presbyteries and synods, to whom was con- 
fided a high degree of legislative and judicial autho- 
rity in the government of the church. 

In minor doctrinal principles, in some forms of 
worship, and in unimportant ecclesiastical regula- 
tions, the churches, enumerated as reformed, varied; 
but in every essential characteristic they were uni- 
form ; and notwithstanding they recognize different 
authorities as standards ; the French, Genevan, Hel- 
vetic and Bohemian confessions, the articles of tho 
Synod of Dort, and the Westminster Assembly's Con- 
fession of Faith, may be easily admitted by all those 
who receive Calvin's Institutes, as a correct explica- 
tion of evangelical truth. Consistory and session, 
classis and presbytery, synod and assembly, are 
merely divers appellations for the same bodies, who 
exercise similar powers in their churches, with one 



CENfURlES XVI. XVIll. 313 

ilistinction only ; the Scotch Presbyterian hierarchy 
and their descendants claim a more unlimited juris- 
diction over their congregations, than that which 
the others assume. This usurpation arising proba- 
bly, from the supremacy which the civil law allotted 
to them, and their total exemption from persecution, 
since WiUiam's accession to the throne of Britain. 

1. SwiiJzerknd.-'The churches which were primarily 
collected, in consequence of the labours of Zuingle 
and others in the Swiss cantons, have retained much 
of their original charax^ter ; and amid all the com- 
motions of three centuries, have evinced a great 
degree of stedfastness and purity. At present, they 
rank among the most efficient and active propagators 
of the sacred oracles on the European continent. One 
remarkable proof of their christian principles is evin- 
ced by the fact ; that although from the period of 
the reformation, they have been divided into Refor- 
med Lutherans and Papists ; yet after the first colli- 
sion subsided, they have all remained " at peace 
among themselves ;" thereby demonstrating, that the 
love of civil liberty extirpates the spirit of religious 
persecution ; that even their ancient popery was of 
the mildest form ; and that their modern attachment 
to the (ruth has not exterminated their evangelical 
pliilanthropy. 

2. Geneva. — The church of Geneva and the theo- 
logical college which Calvin established in that city, 
long maintained an undisputed pre-eminence : but af- 
ter the lapse of a century, it began to decline ; and 
latterly has been the temple of error. A departure 
from christian truth, approximating open infidelity, 
during a series of years, has been the avowed char- 
acter of those v/ho teach where Calvin lectured, and 
who read heresy where that mighty reformer en- 
forced the gospel ; so that even at this period, it may 
be said in the bewailing language of the tearful Jere- 
miah, '' how is the gold become dim, how is the 
most fine gold changed ! the stones of the sanctuary 
are poured out in tbe top of every street." 

2Q 






SI 4 ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. LECTURE XVt 

3. France. -The history of the Huguenots iri 

France has been almost narrated in the review of 
their tortures. From the revocation of the edict of 
Nantz, the reform of religion in that nation has been 
virtually crushed. Those who remained in their na- 
tive country were preserved from total extinction 
merely by their obscurity. After the revolution in 
1789, they began to appear in public, and during that 
tempestuous season were exempt from anguish, on 
account of their religious profession. Napoleon, 
while he directed the French government, not only 
tolerated, but extended to them all possible encour- 
agement ; so that " the word of the Lord had free 
course and was glorified." Their peace however, 
was of short duration; for after the second restora- 
tion of Louis XVIIL, the sanguinary arm of their in- 
imical oppressors was raised against them, and all 
the atrocities of the most execrable periods of popish 
severity were again perpetrated, with the avowed 
purpose, to extirpate those descendants of the primi- 
tive Huguenots. The infuriated monsters were ar- 
rested in their iniquitous progress, through the inter- 
position of the British government, which was irre- 
sistibly demanded by the English Dissenters and 
Scotch Presbyterians ; the force of whose christian 
philanthropy nothing could check, until their reform- 
ed brethren in France were partially reinstated in 
their toleration; — thus restoring 570 congregations 
and nearly two millions of Protestants to some of their 
privileges, and peace. 

4. The Vaudois. — The Vaudois, who are descend- 
ed from the ancient Waldenses, still reside in three 
small vallies, at the foot of the Alps which separate 
France from Piedmont. Persecution in various forms 
oppressed and terrified them ; although not to the 
same extent, as that which the Hug^uenots experien- 
ced. Oliver Cromwell menaced the kings of France 
and Sardinia with his wrath; if they dared to pour 
out their irreligious fury upon these sons of the primi- 
tive Dissenters from the Popedom. Intimidated by this 



CENTURIES XVI. XVllI. 315 

Independent^ they ceased from their diaholical project. 
William III. of England granted to each of the minis- 
ters among the Vaudois, an annual salary of 400 li- 
vres. which was regularly paid by his successors un- 
til 1 797 ; thus maintaining the cause of Christ, among 
those, almost unknown christians, for the tricing sum 
of i20Q dollars per annum. When Napoleon govern- 
ed France, all possible protection and encourage- 
ment were administered to the inhabitants of these 
Alpine vales. The property of which they had been 
despoiled by the Papists was restored, and the sala- 
ry of each pastor, if it amounted not to 1000 francs, 
was suppHed from the national treasury ; ordered 
avowedly and expressly, to reimburse them for the 
loss of the English donation, the transmission of 
which the war had doubtless interrupted. During 
the reign ot Napoleon, in the possession of their civil 
and religious liberties their temporal concerns pros- 
pered ; " the word of God grew and multiplied;" 
and they fancied that perpetuity was fully inscribed 
upon their enjoyments. But '^ vanity and vexation 
of spirit" are the characteristics of all sublunary af- 
fairs ; the supremacy of their friend was demolished ; 
the pretended legitimates vanquished the supporter of 
the Protestants, and the rights of conscience ; and the 
votaries of the Beast resumed their outrageous vio- 
lence and devastations. The Yaudois were again 
pillaged ; their churches w ere closed ; Papists of the 
vilest order, without virtue, probity or intelligence, 
were commissioned to rule over, or rather to worry 
them ; and all kindness to tbe Protestants w^as de- 
nounced, " under pain of excommunication," by the 
Popish priests, v/ho were appointed by the instrumen- 
tality of the un-ho\j alliance to convert or torment 
these lamb-like members of" the household of faith." 
Notwithstanding all their anticipated triumphs, these 
idolaters who bear •• the mark and name of the beast," 
eventually discovered ; " that there was one place 
in Europe, where the oppressed could appeal ; and 
where as long as public justice lingered in the old 



SI 6' ECeLESIASTICA-r> HISTORY. LECTVRE XYl, 

world, acts of atrocity could be stamped with infamy, 
aod men who were suffered to remain unpunished, 
coold be visited with pobhc detestation." The Eng- 
lish Dissenters heard the groans of their distant suf- 
fering christian brethren ; they appealed to the Brit- 
ish government for a resumption of the former pay- 
ments in salaries to the Ministers of thevallies ofPied- 
mont ; and relying upon that eificient patronage, they 
exerted themselves to obtain anew for the Yaudois, 
"their enjoyment of those civil and religious rights, 
of which, by ignorance, intolerance and injustice a- 
lone, they had been deprived." At the same time, 
that most august institution, which now stands the van- 
guard of the noble army of European christians who 
are contending for the evangelical and social " rights 
of man," " the Protestant Society/ for the protection of re- 
ligious liberty ^^^ publicly avowed their unalterable de- 
termination, that if necessary, '^ they would contribute 
to their aid ; that they would invite ail wise and good 
men to imitate the conduct which the best and wisest 
of their ancestors had displayed ; and that they 
would collect a fund for the Vaudois, which should 
permanently mitigate their evils, preserve their wid- 
ows from famine, and their Ministers from despair; 
and cause their children, and their children's chil- 
dren, amid their glens, and dells, and rocks, scarcely 
pervious to a foreign foot, aod in their humble chur- 
ches, at the hours of prayer, long to continue to re- 
peat the praises and the supplications which their 
parents had so often uttered, that God would ever 
bless with peace and with prosperity, the church and 
the world." Although we are separated by the At- 
lantic floods from these gospel warriors ; it is enrap- 
turing, to remember ; that the grand charter of evan- 
gelical truth and freedom, which in these states sways 
unrestricted by national regulations, has been adopt- 
ed by the descendants of the primitive witnesses who 
prophesied in sackloth ; and although the Vaudois 
include a population of about 25,000 souls only ; yet 
that in London, a host of the pacific combatants of the 



CENTURIES xvi.~xviir. 317 

Redeemer, allied by bonds and covenants Mhich 
time cannot corrode, and which distance cannot en- 
feeble ; are always ready, vigorous, and on the alert, 
to intimidate the Dragon's Beast with all his authori- 
ty ; and to defend that sacred cruse, which includes 
the present comforts, and which guarantees the tri- 
umphant everlasting felicity of all thos 8 "who follow 
the Lamb whithersoever he goeth." 

5. Bohemia. — After the persecutions in Bohemia, 
which were ended by the peace of v/sstphalia ; the 
Protestant cause declined ; and cocaparatively few 
vestiges are now visible of that glorious host, who so 
long and so successfully resisted ths Papal impos> 
tions, except as they have appeared in their modern 
Moravian descendants. 

6. Poland. — In Poland, the light of the Reformation 
earl^ diffused its lustre ; but its glory was soon tar- 
nished by the propagation of innumerable errors, 
respecting the character, offices, and work of the Me- 
diator ; and the eclipse gradually extending its gloom, 
the influence of the truth was of minor efficacy. The 
late commotions and disunion of that unhappy nation, 
will probably be in some measure beneficial ; as they 
have transferred a large portion of its territories to a 
Protestant Prince ; and the present generation view 
with an extremely abhorrent countenance, all at- 
tempts at religious coercions. Peacefully to permit 
the adversaries of the Romish hierarchy to worship 
God, and to promulge the glorious gospel in the ver- 
nacular languages, will most effectually demolish 
" that great city, which ruleth over the kings of the 
earth." 

7. The JVetherlands, — The blessings of the gospel 
were diffused among the inhabitants of the Nether- 
lands, not long after the secession of Henry VIII. from 
the Popedom. Charles V. engrossed by the tumul- 
tuous concerns of his wide-spread dominions, very 
slightly interfered in the religious changes of the Bel- 
gic provinces. But his son, Philip, discerning the 
spirit of liberty and iudependence w hich the low 



W: 



318 ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. LECTURE XVI. 

Dutch had imbibed through their Hbe rati on from pa- 
pal vassalage, resolved to destroy itbj the most vio- 
lent oppression. By his command, the inquisition 
was erected, armed with the most extensively tre* 
mendous authority, and denouncing unlimited ven- 
gence against all the reformed. Cruelty and an- 
guish at last exasperated all orders of the community ; 
the nobles associated to obtain by force the repeal 
of the tyrannical @nd merciless decrees which Philip 
had issued against them, and the unequivocal resto- 
ration of their religious rights and liberty ; while 
the ungovernable aad irritated multitudes proceeded 
in a more summary manner to obtain redress. They 
razed the monasteries, burnt the images which were 
placed in the churches, and having emitted their rage 
against the officers of the inquisition, expelled them 
from the country. Philip transported a large army 
from Spain, to reduce the revolted provinces to the 
most debasing subordination. His general, the Duke 
of Alva, commenced his sanguinary career, by an in- 
discriminate slaughter of all those who were opposed 
to the Pope ; 18000 of the reformed were hanged 
hy the common executioner, during his command. 
The conflict was finally terminated in the triumph of 
the seven northern united Belgic provinces, and the 
Genevan system became the established religion ; 
with a universal toleration of all who obeyed the 
government, and who disturbed not the public tran- 
quillity. 

From that period, the internal history of the Dutch 
churches comprises no important circumstance, ex- 
cept the events connected with the Synod of Dorts. 
The controversy which eventually agitated the uni- 
ted provinces, and which so deeply interested all the 
European reformed churches, originated with Ar- 
minius, at that period, in the year 1590, and subse- 
quently, theological professor at Leyden. Having 
imbibed sentiments at great variance with the Cal- 
vinistic doctrines respecting the nature and subjects 
of divine predestination; the extent of the Redeem- 



CENTURIES ivVi. XVllK 319 

er's atonement; the efficacy of saving grace, and 
the perseverance of the saint*; he resolved to pnb- 
lish his new^ly adopted theory. Those who adhered 
to the ancient faith of the reforgied Dutch church, 
resisted the attempt to disseminate these opinions ; 
the contest extended its rage, until all the provinces 
were enveloped in the combustion. During this pe- 
riod, Arminius died ; but the contention was prolong- 
ed by his disciples, who, perceiving their exposure 
to persecution, as a consequence of their departure 
from the national faith, presented a remonstrance to 
the states, imploring toleration. This, with other cir- 
cumstances, entwined national politics with the ec- 
clesiastical discord. Maurice, the stadtholder of 
Holland, widely differed from some of the most influ- 
ential men in the republic; among these, were Gro- 
tius and Barnevedt, who were united with the Armin- 
ians: nevertheless, he endeavoured to promote for- 
bearance and concord among the disputatious eccle- 
siastics, and refused to inflict any penalties upon the 
Remonstrants, as they were then denominated al- 
though a formal toleration was denied. Several con- 
ferences were held, and other pacific measures to 
reconcile or quiet the restless theologians, vvere in 
vain adopted; until the States General, dreading the 
political consequences of this internal fury, assented 
to the request of the Calvinists, and convoked a na- 
tional Syi'od, at Dort, in 1618; in which assembly, 
were present deputies from the Relgic provinces, 
England, Switzerland, Hesse, Bremen, and the Pala- 
tinate. Episcopius, at that period, professor of divi- 
nity at Leyden, a man of profound learning and great 
capacity, appeared to defend the Armimans,and com- 
menced the synodical proceedings by an ingenious, 
temperate, and eloquent address. All the objects for 
which the synod convened, were immediately after 
excluded; it had been previously decided, that the 
Remonstrants should open the conference, by evinc- 
ing the truth of the Arminian doctrines from rea- 
son and scripture. This mode they rejected, and 



ill 



320 ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. LECTURE XYU 

proposed to refute the Calvinistic system prior to 
the establisment of their own articles of faith; this 
order of proceediog was refused bj the sjnod, upon 
the general principle, that in all controversies, the 
jdis})atarit is obliged to demonstrate the rectitade of his 
own sentiments, before he can confute the opinions 
of those who dissent from him. As the Synod were 
immovable in adhering to the order which had been 
antecedently prescribed, and the Arminians were 
unalterably determined not to comply with the ar- 
rangement ; after every expedient had been tried in 
vain, to induce them to exhibit and defend their own 
sentiments, as it was impossible for the Synod to 
proceed in the duties which they were enjoined to 
fultii ; the Remonstrants were expelled from the Sy- 
nod ; and their writings being afterwards examined, 
they were declared " guilty of pestilential errors, 
and condemned as corrupters of the true religion." 
Heligious persecution is ever identical. In conse- 
quence of this decision of the Synod, the Arminians 
were excommunicated, as " enemies of their country 
and of its established religion ;" and all the evil ef- 
fects of intolerance, supported by the civil magis- 
trate, ensued. From every office of honour and 
emolument, they were ejected ; their ministers were 
precluded from preaching ; and all their congrega- 
tions were destroyed. To these enactments, obedi- 
ence was peremptorily, and without doubt conscien- 
tiously refused ; but resistance to this ungodly man- 
date only augmented their vexations ; as ignominy, 
fines, imprisonment and expulsion, were successively 
their allotment. To escape from these otherwise 
unavoidable miseries, many of the Arminians migrat- 
ed into the neighbouring states, and especially into 
Holstein : but after a few years had elapsed, Fred- 
eric, the successor of Maurice, annulled the sentence 
of banishment ; invited the exiles to return to Hol- 
land ; re-established them in their former peace, 
honour and enjoyments ; and guaranteed their secu- 
rity by an unrestricted toleration. 



CENTURIES XVI. XVIII. 321 

The Armiriians of that period excited just aversion: 
ihey proposed to enlarge the boundaries of the 
church so as to include all those who simply assent- 
ed to the truth of the Holj ►Scriptures ; and it is in- 
disputable, that many of them were almost Socinians 
and Pelairians. After their toleration, the rem.on- 
strants apparently declined, as many ecclesiastics oi 
the estabiisiicd clinrch coalesced with them in o- 
pinion ; while, in fact, their doctrines and spirit were 
vapidly, atlliough secretly extending their influence. 
From the middle of the seventeenth century to the 
prcr^cnt era, <lie Reformed Protestants in Holland 
iui'iiisli no interesting annals; they have preserved 
an uniibrinity of exterior features ; but an insipid 
formality of devotion, a lukevv^arm lifeless unconcern 
for vital godliness, and an indifference to evangelical 
truth, have generally pervaded their congregations. 
This aberration of theological sentiment is the 
,more remarkable in the Hollanders, on account of 
their proverbial identity and adhesion to antiquated 
principles and forms; and the solution of the mys- 
tery can be derived solely from the fact; that a defec- 
tion in doctrine has been the prominent and unvary- 
ino characteristic of all established churches. The 
Lutherans retain, at present, little of their Founder's 
system of ilivinity ; the modern clergy of the Epis- 
copal church of England altogether, and almost ury- 
versally deny their own articles and the creed of the 
Reformers; a large majority of the Genevan Minis- 
ters are very little superior to philosophical infidels ; 
the church of Holland has lost much of its purity of 
doctrine; and in Scotland, the venom of heterodoxy 
liasditrused its malignant effects, through every part 
of •* the ancient kirk;'' thus verifying all the truth of 
ibe Lord's declaration, '' my kingdom is not of this 
world ;" and cautionine: us agraiost that unhallowed* 
ipnpiire, and debasing admixture, which admits the 
interference of terrestrial a'ovenimcnts in the admin- 
istration of the affairs of tlie church. 

2B 



322 ECC1.ESIAST1CAL HISTORY. LECTURE XYL 

8. Scotland. — The insuperable aversion of the Scotch 
from the Papacy, and their equally ardent atiacii- 
ment for the Presbyterian system^ may be imputed 
to two circumstances connected with the introduc- 
tion of the Protestant principles into that country. 
The last generation of Romish priests in North-Brit* 
ain were renowned for perfidy and cruelty, so invet- 
erate, that the record of their treacherous barbarities 
cannot, even now, after the lapse of 300 years, be 
perused without the most indignant emotions. Their 
detestable enormities enraged all classes of the com- 
monwealth ; whose exasperation was increased 
by the remembrance, that all the calamities whicli 
they suffered, were augmented by the devas* 
tations of a French Popish army introduced into 
the land, intentionally to abridge their civic rights, 
and also to conline them in spiritual bondage. The 
nobles and grandees maintained the Protestant cause 
hy military force ; while the mixed multitudes razed 
the altars, destroyed the images, removed all the 
monuments of idolatry from the churches, and demol- 
ished vast numbers of the monasteries ; acting upon 
the oracular adage pronounced by Knox, " the best 
way to keep the Rooks from returning, is to pull 
down their nests." When the French army retired 
fi^m Scotland in 1560, the dismayed Popish Priests 
either accompanied the troops, their sole defenders, 
(o France, or from timidity altogether ceased to mum- 
ble their masses and idolatrous ritual ; so that, in 
iact^ the whole kingdom was almost totally deprived 
ofth^ regular institutions of the gospel; for when 
the first Genevan Assembly met, 5 months after the 
treaty with France was signed, six preachers on- 
ly were present : consequently, the Protestants ex- 
perienced no effectual opposition, in universally es- 
tabhshing the system which Knox had imbibed at 
Geneva. 

The rise and progress of the established church of 
Scotland require a historical detail, in addition to the 
cursory notice, which has already been devoted to 



CENTURIES XVI. XVlll. 323 

that interesting topic. (1) James V., King of Scot- 
land, on account of his partiality to the popish eccle- 
siastics, zealously persecuted the reformed ; and the 
inquisitorial fires were universally kindled. Patrick 
Hamilton was honored by God, as the' instrument to 
introduce tlie principles of the Reformation; and in 
the 24th year of his age, 1527, he became the Scotch 
proto-martyr; '• his youth, learning, virtue, magna- 
nimity, and sufferings excited the strongest attach-^ 
ments of the people. Alexander Campbell having 
insulted him at the stake to which he was bound, in 
readiness for the fire ; he reminded him of his traitor- 
ous duplicity, and solemnly cited him to answer be- 
fore the judgment seat of Christ ; the persecutor, a 
few days after, having been seized with madness, 
died; to the entire conviction of the witnesses, that 
Hamilton was innocent and consumed for the truth." 
General indignation pervaded the whole kingdom ; 
and the reformed multiplied with astonishing celerity. 
Seton, the king's confessor, himself a Papist, boldly 
propagated, that '• not one true and faithful Bishop 
existed in Scotland;" but for the sake of his person- 
al safety, he was obliged to depart from the kingdom. 
In 1533, Henry Forrest was burnt for declaring that 
" Hamilton was a pious martyr, and that his principles 
were defensible." In addition to this abominable her- 
esy, he ov^ned a New Testament in the English lan- 
guage. 

In 1539, Russel and Kennedy were burnt at Glas- 
gow, the latter being not 18 years of age ; just before 
the fire ^vas kindled, Kennedy, having been encour- 
aged by Russel, uttered his triumph over mortality 
in this transporting language : " Now, I am ready, I 
praise my God; Death, I defy thee." 

Beaton, the Cardinal primate of Scotland, was an 
insolent, perfidious ecclesiastic; without justice or 
pity; inordinately haughty; inhuman, crafty, super- 
stitious and profligate. By him a court of Inquisition 
was established, and Hamilton, an ambitious, blood- 

(1.) Appendix XY. 



m 



324 ECCLESIASTICAL Kl&TORV. LECTURE Xvl, 

thirsty monster, was appointed to siiperiDtend ilb 
transaclions ; whose sanguinary assiduity would soon 
have tilled all the prisons in the kingdom, with the 
noble, the opulent, and the more enlightened among 
the Protestants ; but in the midst of all his iancied 
successful mischief, he v» as indicted for a conspiracy 
to assassinate the King ; and Hamilton died as a 
traitor. " From the year 1540 to the end of 1512, 
the numbers of the reformed rapidly increased. The 
clergy twice attempted to destroy them by one act. 
They presented to James, a list of some bur a j is of 
persons of wealth and dignity, whom they de.'ioiuiced 
as heretics; and endeavoured to procure their si riugh- 
ter, by enumerating the immense wealth v/hich he 
might thus confiscate. So violent was h's antipathy 
against the nobles, and so completely was he influ- 
enced by the clergy," that his own miserable death 
alone, probably obstructed the consummation of their 
execrable design. 

As Mary, his daughter^ was a child, the Regency 
of the kingdom was transferred to the earl of Arran, 
a Protestant, who encouraged the Preachers to de- 
nounce the Pope's supremacy, image-worship, and 
the invocation of saints ; the beneficial effects of 
which were inconceivably promoted by a law, which 
%vas enacted at the same period ; that the Bible 
should be dispersed in the vulgar tongue, and that 
no guilt should attach to the possession and perusal 
of the sacred scriptures. 

New measures to persecute the reformed were 
devised ; but the political commotions in a great de- 
gree impeded the execution of the Cardinal's con- 
trivances until the year 1544 ; when Beaton entered 
Pei th, and commenced his inquisitorial career by the 
most abhorrent murders. The aggravation produced 
by the slaughter of persons of inferior rank, was in- 
flamed to the highest degree, by the deliberate, inde- 
cent and ap))alling barbarities, which attended the 
seizure, trial, condemnation and burning of George 
Wishart, the most learned and eminent preacher 



(iiK^STUKlES ^Yl. XV III. 325 

wh-oni the Scotch reformed had then heard. The cardi- 
nal, with the inferior prelates exalted in a hah-^ony of 
the tower belonging to the castle, insolently triumph- 
ed over the suffering martyr ; neither feeling their 
own inhumanity, nor comprehending the value of a 
magnanimous christian. This, it is supposed, affect- 
ed even the superiority of the saint ; for in the midst 
of his mortal agonies, he declared that "- his haughty 
enemy would perish in a few days, and be ignomini- 
ouslj exposed in the place which he then so pom- 
ously occupied,''' The prediction was fulfilled ; al- 
most immediately after the martyr's exit to Paradise, 
a conspiracy was formed against Beaton, his castle 
was captured, himself immediately assassinated, and 
as the excluded adherents of the Cardinal were anx- 
ious to behold him, they who slew him, suspended 
his corpse from the identical place, where he had so 
shortly previous exulted in the inconceivable tortures 
of the consuming Wishart. 

[n continual vicissitude the Protestant cause waver- 
ed, during the civil dissensions which afflicted Scot- 
land ; although the truth probably acquired more sta« 
bihty, yet the reformed professors of it experienced 
a great variety of persecution. At length, in 1557, 
the first covenant was formed, by which, all those 
w^ho adtiered to it, renounced idolatry, and devoted 
themselves to establish the pure word of God. The 
conflagration of V/alter Mill decided the dubious and 
the hesitating ; the horror was so inexpressible and 
universal, that it was evident, nothing less than the 
extirpation of the popish authority, or of the Reform- 
ed principles, could restore harmony to the nation. 
As the emergency of affairs required, one covenant 
succeeded another, until the Protestant power be- 
came so strong, that the Romish party and the French 
army who had been transported to Scotland to up- 
hold the expiring hierarchy, both being totally de- 
feated, consented in 1560 to withdraw from the realm. 
Immediately after this triumph, the legislature as- 
sembled ; and without delay, rejected the Pope's au- 



O^O ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. LECTURi^ ^. 

thority, confirmed the reformed confession of faith, 
and abolished the idolatrous worship. These meas- 
ures having been legahzed, an additional act of Par- 
liament was passed, by which " every memorial of 
Popery whatsoever fonnd in the kingdom was com- 
manded to be finally overthrown and demolished." 

The civil distractions which agitated Scotland, 
during many years, produced no material effect in- 
jurious to the cause of the Reformation: the extinc- 
tion of Popery had been so complete, and the nation- 
al enthusiasm was so fervid, that the papists scarcely 
attempted to display their superstitions. A remark- 
able innovation, however, was introduced into the 
kingdom in the midst of these tumults ; the substitu- 
tion of Episcopacy for the Presbyterian system ; but 
as this change was obviously the result of a combina- 
tion, between some of the nobility and their syco- 
phantic ecclesiastical adherents, that the former 
might possess the ancient revenues of the papacy, 
and the latter the honours which the dignified Monks 
had enjoyed, it was universally disapproved, and 
these successors of Pope Hell-brand were continual 
subjects of reproach, contempt and ridicule. 

James VI. having assumed the government of Scot- 
land, commanded all the ministers to acknowledge 
the king's ecclesiastical supremacy, and to^ submit 
to the episcopal jurisdiction. 

This edict filled every district of the land with the 
most violent disputations. The disciples of Knox 
peremptorily refused a compliance with the king's 
injunction : and contended, that to admit the king to 
be head of the church was exalting a new Pope, and 
high treason against Jesus Christ ; and that to ac- 
knowledge the episcopacy, would destroy the influ- 
ence and sway of religion and the gospel. This fiery 
collision of opinion and action existed during the 
whole of James' reign. After Elizabeth's death, he 
was also enthroned King of England ; and his addi- 
tional power augmented his acrimonious vehemence 
against the Presbyterians and Puritans, w^ho were 



CEMTURIF.S XVL XVllI. ,127 

invincibly attached to the cause of civil and religious 
liberty ; and increased his partiality for the Episco- 
palians and Papists, who maintained his amplest 
claims to despotic prerogatives. 

At an early period after lie commenced his reign 
over the two kingdoms, he resolved to establish the 
episcopacy in Scotland, and visited his nativ^e coun- 
try for this avowed purpose ; but every effort was a- 
bortive. All the royal authority, menaces, flattery, 
and coercion, were inefficient, either to procure a sin- 
gle admission of principle, that he, as king, w^as in- 
vested with any ecclesiastical jurisdiction ; or the 
introduction of the most insignificant ceremony in- 
corporated in the English Episcopal ritual. The 
result was the same in both countries; additional 
obstinacy in adhering to their opinions on the part of 
the Puritans and Presbyterians ; and perfect disgust 
with a monarch, who displayed iii equal proportions, 
puerile versatility, and mental weakness, and tyran- 
nic arrogance. 

The church of Scotland continued in this feverish 
state of discontent, until Charles I. who had ascended 
the throne on the death of his father James, issued 
in 1835, a bull of canons appoiiUing re-settlement of 
ihp bishoprics in Scotland. Two years after an attempt 
was made to introduce and read Laud's popish Lit- 
111 gy in the ancient cathedral church of Edinburgh; 
but the tumult which it produced, evinced^that a re- 
petition of the experiment would be dangerous to 
the innovators. A universal combination against the 
rovLil and episcopal measures was instantaneously 
ib:med ; which Laving assumed all the consistency 
of an open and regular insurrection, issued their 
cooioiands which were constantly obeyed, and the 
celebrated Covenant was enacted ; by this compact, 
popery and episcopacy were renounced ; and to it, 
was superadded a bond of union, which obliged the 
subscribers to maintain their cause, against all oppo- 
silioD and to the last extremity. Charles tilarmed at 
this resistance. '^^'^'^ *^ commissioner to the covenant- 



^<}*^. 




328 



FXGLESIASTICAL HISTORY. 



LECTURE XVI. 



ers, wbo proposed, to suspend the operation of the 
royai canons and popish liturgy, and to remove the 
^' high commission," or bastard court of inquisition ; 
provided, that the Scotch annulled their covenant. 
The covenanters sternly and scornfully replied, that 
they should prefer a renunciation of their baptism ; 
anvd solemnly invited the King's deputy himself to ra- 
tify their engagements. Baffled in a'l his arbitrary 
measures, Charles finally summoned an assembly and 
parliament, for the redress of national grievances and 
the restoration of general harmony. A counter cov- 
enant was also dispersed by Charles and his papis- 
tical adherents, for the sole purpose of dividing the 
Reformed, but it^was received with equal contempt 
and detestation. 

The Assembly was convened in 1638. The Bish- 
ops v/ere accused of every species of criminality; 
all the acts of the previous Assemblies and Parlia- 
ments in favor of episcopacy were declared null and 
void; and the universal signature of the covenant 
w^as enjoined with the menace of excommunication 
for disobedience. At this juncture, Charles having 
resolved to enforce subjection, levied a large army ; 
but when he arrived upon the borders of Scotland, 
he consented to a peace, and the convocation of a- 
nother ecclesiastical assembly and parliament. The 
former instantly proclaimed '^ episcopacy illegal in 
the church of Scotland ; the canons and liturgy were 
stigmatized as popish ; and the high commission 
court was denounced as a tyrannical inquisition." 
The parliament were engaged in diminishino; the 
pov/er of the monarch, and in ratifving thh decisions 
of the assembly ; when the king suddenly dissolved 
their session, and the contest was recommenced. 

Impelled by circumstances, in 1641, Charles abol- 
ished the episcopacy in Scotland ; and except the 
agitations produced by the civil tumults in England^ 
the nation enjoyed comparative peace. After the war 
between Charles and the Parliament had existed 
during nearly two years, the Puritans implored the 



assiBtance of the Scotch; <1jc result of this tonCede- 

racv wr.s ihc. f;ote:tnn ha<n!c and covenant, which eilliced 

•' . . . '-^ ■ . ■ . 

all ^rioroblio^^tioiiR, nnd retained its authority, until 

\\\G union of (!sf; two kingdoms rendered the provi- 
:^ions of that famous instrument nugatory. 

The presbyierian system triumphed during the 
protectorate of Cromwell; but imtnediately after 
Charles If. occupied the Ihrone, in 1660, a more vio- 
lent attempt \v;is snade to introduce episcopacy into 
Scotland, Ilia?! had previously been exhibited. — 
Fiom this peiiorl, every species of malignant torture 
was experiejiced by the inodi^nsive Corenanters.- — 
vSharpe was tiiclt* deputy to complain to the king of 
their miseries, and to procure some alleviation of 
their distress; that unprincipled brother of Judas 
betrayed his constituents, and for his treachery, was 
rew^arded with the pomp, dignity and opulence of an 
archbishop. His relentless enmity was unbounded ; 
tew were gibbeted together in Edinburg; many were 
hanged at the doors of their own fiabitations ; and 
all these murders were perpetrated solely because^ 
these harmless sheep would not renounce the cove- 
nant. Charles himself, was eventually induced to com- 
mand that the incorrigible, those who obstinately ad- 
hered to the covenant should be transported to the 
distant colonies. This order was transmitted to 
Sharpe, and by him secreted. Amid these persecu 
tions, it had been customary to inllict upon those 
christians, the utmost severity of excruciation, tliat 
they might be coerced to acknowledge as false> that 
v» hich tliey believed and knew to be true. Hugh Mac- 
cail was thus tortured; ai]d so excessive vverehis an- 
fifuish and laceration, that he exoired under the hands 
of his tormentors. H^e died in an ecstacy of joy and 
cliristian triumph; uttering his final expressions '.^ith 
ail accent, wdiich filled all his auditors m\h du- ut- 
most astonishment.—'^ Farewell ! sun, moon. -' 'd 
stars — farewell! world and time — f^' v; '' n - vk 
frail body— welcome, eternity!— weicorV', r:>g' Is aid 
saints ! — welcome, Saviour of the world! — and wel- 

2 S 



330 ECGLBiDiASTICAL HISTORY. LECTURE XVl. 

come, God the judge of all !" — Blessed are the dead who 
die in the Lord I 

These measures were speedily after exchanged 
for an indulgence ; but the people rejected the bribe; 
and usually met in arms for divine worship : it was 
therefore resolved again to coerce submission to the 
episcopal jurisdiction by royal authority. By an an- 
cient gothic enactment, any person who was accused 
of crime, that did not appear for trial, might be 
publicly outlawed ; and all who held intercoi rse 
with him were subject to the same penalties as the 
delinquent, if guilty. This atrocious regulation was 
enforced against the covenanters ; so that crimes, 
punishments and" miseries were extensively and in- 
deiinitely multiplied. 

The rage produced by these unintermitting wos, 
at length was effused upon the malignant renegado, 
Sharpe, who was deliberately murdered in 1679; in 
consequence of vvhich, the covenanters experienced 
a more serious persecution, that provoked them to 
a second insurrection. Intestine war, with all the 
additional calamities of religious opposition, was 
conitinued with temporary intermissions until the ab- 
dication of James; after which the Presbyterian sys- 
tem resumed its mirestricted domination; and has 
hitherto maintained its pre-eminence in that portion 
of the British isle ; for the first parliment which met 
after the revolution in 1688, abolished the prelacy 
and the king's ecclesiastical jurisdiction ; ratified the 
Westminster confession of faith and Presbyterian 
form of government and dicipline ; extirpated patro- 
nage ; and transferred the election of ministers to 
the heritors and elders, with the consent of the con-/ 
greg.ifions. 

Froin the reformation to the peace made at this 
period, the church of Scotland had enjoyed but few 
intervals of real tranquillity. When not in a state of 
actual contlict with the civil rulers who wished to 
deprive her of her existence or her power, her situ- 
ation was so precarious, as to produce a constant 



CENTURIES XVI. XVIII. 331 

alarm : but her internal and spiritual- condition 
appears now to have been exceedingly prosperous ; it 
is asserted by some to have excelled every f"orraer''pe- 
riod in the number of devoted, active, and zealous 
pastors, and in the superior measures of knowledge 
and piety among the people. 

If we forai to ourselves the pleasing representa- 
tion of the humble presbyters of the Scottish church, 
labouring with assiduity and perseverance among 
their iiocks in preaching, catechising, and pastoral 
visits ; and Hrmliitudes under their care imbibing 
divine knowledge and the spirit of the gospel, and 
adorning their christian profession by a holy life, we 
shall have a full idea of what was taking place during 
the early part of this period, in hundreds of parishes 
and among ten thousands of the people. But peace 
has its temptations which were powerfully felt, anc! 
proved greatly injurious to the purity and prosperity 
of this highly favoured church. 

For however favourable the external state of a 
community may be, events will occur to embitter the 
sweets of life, and to furnish trials to the wise and 
good. Such was the effect of a measure needlessly 
adopted by the British government in the end of 
queen Anne's reign. The oath of abjuration, which 
at the union had been required of Scotchmen in civil 
offices, was in 1712 imposed on the clergy, under a 
penalty which involved their utter ruin. Not one of 
the body was disaffected to the existing government ; 
but many of them were enemies to an oath except in 
casesof absolute necessity; and some scrupled atpar^ 
ticular clauses as binding them to express their ap- 
probation and support of episcopacy, and prevent- 
ing them from seeking the farther reformation of the 
land. So widely were these sentiments extended, 
that more*than a third part of the ministers refused 
to comply with the requisition of government, and 
became liable to a penalty of five hundred pounds, 
a sum which perhaps not iifty of the whole body would 
have been able to pay. In this distressing situation, 



-'Uiiiiuiilii 



33S 



E€t;LESIASTICAL lliSTfc)(a'. 



LECTURE XVI. 



thrust out of the protection of the law, these nonju- 
rors remained froin year to year. In 17! 5, and again 
four years after in 1719, the subject was brought for- 
ward, and the oath with certain alterations comman- 
ded to be enforced. The stern principles of the old 
presbyierians, dictated by conscience, refused to 
cornpiy ; and they continued to the day of their de^th, 
discharging the duties of tlieir orFice with the naked- 
sword of the h^w hariging over their heads. 

Another evil effect of the oath was, that between 
the minister*^ vAvj yubinitted to it, and those who re- 
lused it, not on! J coldi^ess. but an alicnatioji of heart 
was produced • and at one time but for the wisdom 
of principal Carstairs. a schism was likely to have 
taken place in the Scottish church. The people too 
entered into the subject with the ardour characteris- 
tic of Scotchtnen in disputes pertaining to religion. 
Being in general hostik.' to the oath and its adherents, 
they viewed with suspicion and dislike many excel- 
lent men because they were on the opposite side." 

Tt^e Tory administration of Queen Anne, also 
resenting the attachm.ent of the Scotch to the fa- 
mily of Hanover, upon whom the hereditary title to 
the throne devolved, revived the okl LiW of patro- 
nage ; by which under certain prerogatives inhe- 
rent to the possession of the lands, the principal 
proprietors of the soil were empowered to introduce 
any minister at their option, without the choice and 
against the consent of the congregation. This regu- 
lation eventually produced the Secession, 2. 

About the middle of the eighteenth century, Scot- 
lanvd exhibited the marrow of ecclesiastical history — 
an extensive revival of religion, which took place 
within the bosom of the church. After a long sea- 
son of comparative inefhcacy, in whicli mmisterg 
complained that they had laboured in vai|p, a spirit 
of attention to divine truth was excited through 
different parts of the country in an extraordinary 
degree ; and multitudes vv'ho had been walking 



2. Appendix XVf. 



CENTURIES XVI. XVlll. '3'S3 

according to the course of this world, were convert- 
ed by the preaching of the gospel. 

This revival iirst appeared in 1745, at Cambers- 
lang, a village in the neighbourhood of Glasgow. 
During a course of sermons on the doctrine of rege- 
nei-ation by Mr. MOuiloch, the minister of the pa- 
rislj, the people began to be impressed in an unusual 
manner and degree ; religion occupied their whole 
attention; tliey were convinced tiat they had not 
been regenerated, and with the most painful anxiety 
of soul tliey mc^uired, •' what must I do to be saved.'' 
Seisons of worship were immediately multiplied ; 
and tjie minister's time was occupied from morning 
to night in giving spiritual counsel to his awakened 
(lock. The consequences were infinitely delightful: 
in the space of a few months, 300 persons displayed 
unequivocal evidences of the christian life ; nor did 
future years give occasion to object, that it was a 
transitory emotion of religious feeling; for the gene- 
rality of them continued faithful unto death. The 
divine ilame spread from place to place, and the 
mosi zealous ministers, in different parts of the coun- 
try, had the joy of seeing \n their own parishes the 
same spirit of revival, though scarcely any in an e- 
qual degree. Mr. Whitfield who soon after visited. 
Scotland, contributed by his powerful labours to 
promote the glorious cause. 

While the friends of religion rejoiced in this re- 
markable display of divine grace, it was violently 
decried and attacked by many of the clergy, as the 
quintes'sence of enthusiasm and folly. They spoke 
and wrote against it ; they warned the people against 
its baleful influence, and displayed a zeal scarcely 
inferior to that of its friends who believed it to be the 
work of God. In every revival of religion a similar 
spirit has been exhibited; the cause of vital piety, 
however, was not left without defenders. 

Unhappily the seceders, from whom better things 
might have been expected, vehemently opposed the 
work, publicly testified against it as a delusion of 



334 



ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. 



LECTURE XVI. 



the devil, and appointed a day of fasting and prayer 
that by the interposition of heaven it might cease. 
They conceived that if any great work of rehgion 
was to be accomplished in Scotland, it must be by 
them; and because this revival had not taken place 
in their communion it could not be from above. Their 
conduct on this occasion gave great offence and 
contributed to degrade them exceeedingly in the eyes 
of those who had formerly viewed them with high 
esteem. When the gospel is preached in its purity, 
the Spirit of God demonstrates by the influence with 
which it is accompanied, that he does not hy so 
much stress upon the peculiarities of an external 
system as its votaries." 

It is requisite only to subjoin ; that notwithstanding 
these defects which have been enumerated; in lu- 
minous theology, moral purity, spiritual fervour and 
doctrinal orthodoxy, the churches of Scotland shine 
pre-eminent among the reformed Protestants ; 3. 
and although they have not escaped the contagion 
infused by worldly associations, and the chilling infi- 
delity so predominant throughout the last century ; 
still they concentrate a considerable portion of*' the 
light of the world," and have always been a •' city set 
on a hill that cannot be hid" — esto perpetua* Amen; 



3. Appendix XVII. 



THEOLOGICAL CONTROVERSIES. 



From the fall of man, the world has been the thea- 
tre of contention; and the permanence of strife to the 
present day, not only among nations, but between 
families and individuals, proclaims the lamentable 
depravity of human nature. If the church betrays 
the same spirit, we are not to wonder ; for some who 
make a profession of religion are still under the do- 
minion of evil dispositions, and have nothing of Chris- 
tianity but the name and the external garb ; while 
others, the sincere disciples of Christ, exhibit the too 
evident remains of imperfection. There are, per- 
haps, but two states of the church from which con- 
troversy will be entirely excluded : the one is, that 
of extreme ignorance, in which men have neither 
talents nor knowledge to dispute: the other is that 
of the redeemed in heaveU;, in which they shall all 
be perfect in knowledge. Whether it will be so in 
the millenium, admits of no decision, till the children 
of that favoured age arrive in heaven, and inform 
their elder brethren of the spirit and pursuits of 
those whom they left behind on earth. Till that 
time, controversies will continue : we may, however, 
assert, that in proportion to the prevalence of truth 
and piety, the number will decrease. But it may be 
laid down as a general rule sanctioned by the scrip- 
tures, and confirmed by reason, that wherever an 
important doctrine of the gospel is perverted or 
deiiipd, it is not only lawful, but a duty of no mean 
rank to stand up in its defence." 

The diversified collisions of opinion, which have 
resulted from the freedom of thought engendered by 
the reformation are of the utmost interest and impor- 
tance, because they h^ve ordinarily been the founda- 



:l3o 



ECGLC3Ix\STICAL HISTORY 



LSlCtURE XT If. 



tion, upon which sone new denomination of cliris- 
tians has erected its staudard. It is desirable there- 
fore, to develope the essential topics which consti- 
tute ihc barriers between the discordant sects, prior 
to a delineation ot^ their progress and present state. 
Two ot the distinctive subjects of contention are re- 
vived from the sepulchre of antiquity, and two nvo 
pecnharlj modern ; yet under these four divisions, 
a few non-descripts excepted, may be classified 
nearly all the predominant dissentients. The former 
comprize the fimdamental inquiry respecting the 
person of Jesus Christ, involving thedisr)uted points 
between the Arians, Socinians, Unitarians, and iliQ 
christian worsliippers of Immanuel ; and the inexpli- 
cable mysteries connected with the prescience of God, 
and the responsibility of man, ordinarily designated 
as the Calvinistic or Arminian controversy : tlie lat- 
ter include, the various modes of church gvernment, 
or rather the reasons of dissent from the Episcopacy ; 
and the dispute upon the mode and subjects of bap- 
tism. Without an accurate understanding of the 
Tarious subjects of debate involved in each of these 
general divisions, the modern history of Christianity 
is a perfect chaos ; and the large number of dilFerent 
sects is an inextricable enigma. 

A controversy of essential importance has been 
prolonged during a considerable parr of ihe })eriod 
since the reformation, relative to the celestial au- 
thority of the sacred scriptures. This is ihe contest 
between the infidel rejection of revealed truth, and 
a confidential subjection to that ivldch God com- 
mands. Christian faith has been assaulted with eve- 
ry possible weapon; the malignity of ridicule, the 
farce of caricature, the array of pretended fiicts, and 
the sophistry of false reasoning, have all been display- 
ed in every diversified form against the rock uport 
which Christ has built his church; but the puny wit- 
less efforts of the assailants have only recoiled upon 
themselves ; they being similar in wisdom to him, 
who discharges his pistol against the adamant, which 



CENTURIES XVL XVllI. ^jf 

iepels the bullet to the injury or destruction of him 
by whom it is fired. 

During the greater part of the eighteenth century, 
the machinations of tlie opponents of the Most High, 
were incessantly developed in all their force and 
acrimony. The volcano burst in the French revolu- 
tion, and illustrated the divine origin, the efficacy, 
the importance, and the permanency of the Christian 
system, so as to supersede all future caril or dispu- 
tation. All that natural genius, acquired learning, 
unequalled artifice, p;^,ramouDt corruption, ceaseless 
falsehood, and infernal enmity combined with resist- 
less human power could attain, was effected ; but 
the triumph of the Destructionists was short, and of 
no more stability and daration. than '' the cr'ickling 
of thorns under a pot:'' so ^h tthe prete: i n- ot an 
infidel are only reme rob. Ti^d with horror; arid if now 
professed, solely eyccite commiseration, and inquiry, 
whatls the reason that the Blasphemer is permitted 
to roam beyond the guardianship of his keepers or 
physicians ? Among all the catalogues of sinners, 
to the Sceptics may be peculiarly appropriated, two 
declarations of the wisest of men — " I saw the wick- 
ed buried, who had come and gone from the place of 
the holy, and they were forgotten in the city where 
they had so done ; for the name of the wicked shall 
rot." 

The following delineation of the Infidels and their 
principles is necessary, merely as a beacon to warn 
tiie thoughtless from the shoals on which so many 
liave been wrecked and destroyed. 

'vignorance of the nature and principles of Chris- 
tianity is a general characteristic of the deists, and it 
may be asserted, that few among them understood 
the gospel sufficiently to be able to form a rational 
judgment whether it was good or bad, or of its evi- 
dence to know whether it was true or false. Upon 
any other topic, men, who had written against a 
science of which they had so little knowledge would 
have appeared ridiculous, and have been ashamed to 

2 T 



3S8 ECCLESIASTICAL H1ST®RY. LECTURE XTII. 

hold up their face before society. But the nature of 
their subject, the scope of their writings, and the 
facihty they gave for the indulgence of every appe- 
tite and passion, have procured not indulgence only 
but favour. 

The enemy of human happines has obtained cur- 
rency to a maxim on the subject of religion, which is 
not allowed on aoy other. If a person has not studied 
languages or sciences, he does not profess to under- 
stand them, and he acknowledges his ignorance. 
But without having studied religion; he thinks that 
he understands what religion is, and that he is qua- 
lified to speak, to argue, to judge, to decide, 
and to write upon the subject. How he will 
write may be easily conceived, and may be seen in 
the books of the deists, who for the mostpart under- 
stood as little of the priiiciples of the gospel of Christ, 
as they did of the language of the Chinese. 

" The sentiments and temper, which the writings 
of the deists exhibit, give the attentive reader but 
toojust cause to conclude that Christianity was too 
good for them, and that they wished for a religion 
which would be more indulgent to the cravings of 
their appetites and passions. Scarcely an indivi- 
dual among tiiem can be found who is pleased with 
the character of God as exhibited in the scriptures. 
He is too holy and too righteous ; they cannot bear 
the effulgence of his glory. On this account, they 
strip him of his perfections according to their plea- 
sure, and remove every thing which they dislike ; 
or turning away from him with aversion and dread, 
tbej frame an idol to themselves, to which they give 
the Liame of God, and which they place upon his 
throne. An extenuation of the evil of sin is another 
conspicuous part of deism, and spreads itself over 
GYesy page. Disobedience to the divine authority 
loses in the eyes of deists almost all its atrocity, and 
they beho^l it with calm indifference. For some 
vices they stand forth as apologists or advocates ; but 
the whole standard of Christian morals is lowered 



CENTURIES lYl. XV HI. 339 

by their system in an inconceivable degree. Over 
the future state they generally endeavour to throw a 
thicker veil. Uncertainty concerning its existence 
is frequently hinted at; eternal happiness is nevf^r 
exhibited by them as an object of warm desire : and 
great p lins are taken and most fervid eloquence em- 
ployed io disprove the punishment of the wicked. 
That pure philanthropy, which burned in the hearts 
of the prophets and apostles, will in vain be looked 
for in the volumes of the deists. To promote with 
zeal the cause of piety and virtue, to improve the 
moral state of man, and augment his happiness, it 
may be plaisily seen is not their aim. Freedom from 
the restraints of religion, not a felicity arising from 
goodness, is the object of their pursuit. 

'' The manner in w^hich they treat the subject and 
their opponents, produces a still more intimate ac- 
quaintance with their character, and teaches in what 
degree of esteexn, the men, their system, and their 
writings are to be held. By persons who treat on 
religion, which is infinitely the most important of 
themes, there should be a bold and frank integrity 
that speaks truth with plainness ; and if it gives of- 
fence, yet from a conviction of duty, submits to any 
consequences which may ensue. For that integrity 
in the works of the deist, the reader will look in vain. 
Most of them profess great respect for Christianity, 
while its destruction is evidently their object. These 
Joabs, with a})parent cordiality kiss this Abner, while 
their design is secretly to smite him under the fifth 
rib. Instead of coming forward manfully to the at- 
tack, and professing a just cause of enmity, they lie 
in wait like the assassin to stab in the dark. Subtle 
insinuations are whispered into the ear; the shaft of 
ridicule is artfully thrown : and then it is pretended 
that the wound which it inflicts is mortal. Pride, 
arrogance, and conceit are but loo promirent in 
every page ; and Christian writers are looked down 
upon with contempt as their inieriors in talents, in 
learning, in every thing. The cry of priestcraft ig 



340 EOGLESIASTICAL HISTORY. LECTURE XVII. 

incessant, and in their esteem efficacious as the shout 
of ancient Israel, and makes the wails of this ancient 
city of God fall to the grou<K]. An advocate for de-' 
ism, vvho is desirous to make men honour God and 
love one another, practice virtue, and hate and shun 
vice; and who discovers an esteem for goodness 
wherever it is found ; who is grieved that the religion 
of Jrsus which exhibits suxii noble views of God, 
which tends so much to the improvement of the hu- 
man character, and presents to the hopes of the be- 
liever a state of eternal happiness in ever j respect to 
be supremely desired, is yet destitute of evidence 
sufficient to convince an impartial inquirer — where 
shall he be found ?" 

This controversy has been attended with the most 
desirable effects ; it has rendered all additional inves- 
tigation of the topics in debate, if not impossible, total- 
ly superfluous ; and Grotius, on the truth of Christian- 
ity, Butler's analogy of Natural and reyealed religion; 
Hal V burton's natural religion insufficient, and re- 
vealed necessary to man's happiness ; Lardner's 
cr xlibilily, or Paley's Evidences ; and Leland's view 
of the Deistical writers, vvith his publications on the 
necessity of revelation, and the authority of the Old 
and Nev^ Testament exceed all human eulogy ; and 
to him who peruses those volumes or either of them, 
with an unprejudiced mind, and continues an infidel, 
Paul's words mny be justly applied, "if any man be 
ignorant, let hitri be ignorant." 

I. fJis 'IViriitcrian Controversy, 

The contention respecting the person of the Lord 
Jesus Christ, hns assumed different characteristics, 
at various periods. " After the reformation was 
established, arianism again revived, but its advocates 
realized very inconsiderable success. Generally 
discouraged and persecuted, the majority fled to Po- 
land, where mingled with the Socinians, they contin- 
ued during a considerable period. 



GENTURIES XVI. XV lU. 



341 



Christians have too often contendf <] among them- 
selves for almost a nonentitj ; but in the dispute 
with the various heretics concerning the divinity of 
the Saviour they contest for all that is essential to 
faith, invigorating to hope, and endearing in affection. 
The deity of Christ is '- the golden hinge on which 
turns all that is valuable in his religion;" for they 
who oppose his divine glory, also equa]iy deny his 
mediatorial work, atonement, justification by his 
righteousness through faith, his presence with his 
Church now, and the immedjr4r possession of Para- 
dise afier death; that is, ihey deface alJ the distinc- 
tive, sublime and consolatory characteristics of chris- 
tian theology. 

Socinus was the first and most distinguished mod- 
ern who opposed the deity and atonement of Imman- 
uel. Servetus also united with him in despising the 
apostolic faith ; but the disputants divided among 
themselves. They all affirmed that the Lord Jesus 
Christ was a mere man ; but they differed respecting 
his miraculous conception, and the propriety of hon- 
oring him with religious worship. (I.) 

The Socinians were eventually expelled from Po- 
land, with such atrocious cruelties, that even the het- 
erodoxy of their principles is forgotten while we per- 
use the record of their agonies ; and the severance 
of the Racovian Brethren in a great measure extin- 
guished for a long time the notoriety of their opinions.. 
But in the reign of Charles the first, their dogmas 
were again introduced to the notice of the Protestants 
by John Biddle, who still retains " a high character 
for morals, talents and learning." He contended 
that '*• God is confined to a certain place, possesses 
passions and a bodily shape, is neither omnipotent 
nor iaimutable, and that Jesus Christ was a mere man, 
who was not a Priest for his people, and made no a,- 
tonement for sin." To Dr. Owen was confided the 
honour of confuting this enemy of the truth — bin, 

(1.) Appendix XIX. 



342 



ECCLESIASTISAL HISTORY. 



LECTURE XYII. 



" knowledge of ecclesiastical history and polemicjAl 
theology, was so vast and profound, that although the 
ancient heresies were revived under modern names 
he grasped and strangled the snakes with more 
than herculean powers. The acumen with which 
he detected the most specious, and the force with 
which he crushed the most formidable h«r€siarch,vv ere 
only surpassed by the accuracy with which he sta- 
ted and explained the most profound discoveries of 
revelation, and the sanctity with which he directed e- 
very truth to the purification of the heart, and the re- 
gulation of the life." 

The controversy, at the commencement of the 
eighteenth century, presented new features; it was 
first developed in England, in an attempt to explain 
the true doctrine of the Trinity. Like all other sim- 
ilar endeavours, it was fruitless. " To specify with 
precision the personality of the Father, Son and Holy 
Ghost, is a task above all human powers; but to 
maintain and believe the doctrine of Scripture, that 
the Father is God, the Son is God, and the Holy Ghost 
is God, is a totally different object." This abortive 
dispute to interpret an inexpliceble mystery most pro- 
bably introduced the modern arian attempt to pro- 
pagate the ancient heresy ; the evil effects of which 
still continue, as among those who were then induced 
to deviate from the truth are fonnd the ancstors of all 
the modern Humanitarians, except those, who afraid 
f>penlyto avow their scornful infidelity, have put on 
this mask purely to conceal the deformity of their 
principles, and under the disguise of christians, more 
effectually to undermine all that is vital and dignified 
in " the glorious gospel of the ever blessed God." 

The tenets of the present heresiarchs upon the di- 
vinity of Jesus Christ, are candidly stated by the Pa- 
triarch of the sect in a late publication. " Christ was 
sent into the world to promulge the will of God; to 
communicate new light respecting reli,q:ious duties ; 
to offer an example of obedience ; by his death, to 
evince his sincerity; and by his resurrection, to grove 



CENT¥RIE» XVI. XVIII. 343 

our immortality." Generally they deny, the inspira- 
tion of the Holy Scriptures, the separate state of the 
soul, and the eternity of future punishments. They 
avow, that " Jesus of Nazareth was a man constitu- 
ted in all respects like other men, subject to the same 
infirmities, prejudices, ignorance, and frailties." 

The writings of socinians in this controversy are 
intended to wage war with the Scriptures. He 
that passes from the one to the other feels that he 
breathes a different atmosphere, and exists in anoth- 
er world. The tone of scepticism, with which the 
allies of Priestley speak of every thing in theology, 
except Calvinism, which always inspires them with 
confident dogmatism, seems designed to expose the 
certainty which the sacred writers inculcate wherev» 
erGod has revealed his mind. Exalted esteem and 
ardent affection for Christ, inspired by the scriptural 
representation of his person and redemption, and de- 
clared to be the vital flame which pervades the liv- 
ing church, is by the socinian writers exchanged for 
a cold measured expression of respect, extorted by 
the ardour of prophets and apostles, in defiance of 
the Irigid tendency of their own system. For if Je- 
sus Christ is originally a being of no higher order 
than ourselves, but in consequence of the office to 
which he was promoted, was made Lord and Judge 
of trie rest oi his species, and rewarded for a i'ew 
years of trial, with a resurrection to some thousands 
of years of life and bliss, while the rest of the pious 
dead are mere non-entities, or at best unconscious 
dust, it was such an honour and advantage to him, that 
almost any man of aspiring energy would be glad to 
enjoy the same privilege by which he would attract 
envy, rather than merit gratitude. The language, 
which the socinians hold in this controversy concern- 
ing virtue, reminds us only of heathen philosophers : 
the energy of the human mind, by which alone they 
suppose it to be produced, proves it to be any bing 
but that" true holiness^" which apostles declare lo be 
the efiect of the sanctification of the Spirit; and the 



344 



ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. 



LECTURE XVL 



I 



merit attached to it, as the price of heaven, proclaims 
defiance to those who assert that " eternal life is the 
gift of God, and that it is not of works, lest any man 
should boast." So palpable, indeed, is the discre- 
pancy of the two systems, that the more perspicacious 
and finished polemics on the socinian side, wisely a- 
void provoking a comparison by a direct quotation 
from the sacred volume, or by any resemblance of 
diction; except when the humanity oi Christ draws 
them out to show that they are glad to avail them- 
selves of Scripture when they can, and by which they 
prove just as much against his Deity, as they would 
against his priesthood, by adducing texts which de- 
clare him to be a king. These writers cannot agree 
among themselves what idea shall be attached to the 
Holy Spirit, or what interpretation shall be given to 
the introduction of the gospel by John; this, with their 
denial of tiie inspiration of the Scriptures, the divine 
influences on the human mind, the miraculous con- 
ception of Christ, his impeccability, his atonement, 
his intercession, the existence of a soul in man, and 
the eternity of future punishment, serves as an anti- 
dote to the poison of anti-trinitarianism, which their 
talents and boldness would otherwise have more 
widely diffused. By continual progress in the same 
road, one rejecting three out of four gosp«=^ls as fabu- 
lous ; another despising prayer as nugatory ; a third 
branding public worship with the name of hypocrisy ; 
a fourth opposing the morality of the Sabbath, and 
even recommending without a blush the pious plea- 
sures of the theatre on Hie Lord's day ; aod, at length, 
a disciple of the same school denying the resurrection 
and the general judgment, which the others had pro- 
nounced the only discoveries of rational Christianity : 
they have strengthened the antidote, at least ss much 
as the poison ; for it is thus rendered manifest, that 
this new species of Christian philosophy is only infi- 
delity baptized with a christian name. 

The investigations connected with this topic have 
assisted the cause of truth, so as to give it the most 



CENTURIES XVI. XVllI. 345 

complete triumph ; and nothing more is necessary to 
convince any person, who studies the Scriptures, that 
the whole system of theology comprehended within 
the particulars already enumerated, is totally unfoun- 
ded and anti-scriptural, than for him to take the Bi- 
ble without note or comment in one hand, and the 
Humanitarian expositions in the other, and calmly 
compare the analogous passages in the Old and New 
Testaments, with their sophistical, jejune, distorted, 
and contradictory interpretations. In this case, as 
in the assaults upon the oracles of God of their fellow 
labourers, the Deists, the result has been similar ; 
the coniusion of the helerodoxical enemies of the a- 
dorable Saviour of sinners, and the augmented con- 
viction, energy, intelligence, and fortitude of them 
" who love the Lord Jesus Christ iii sincerity." 
2. The Arminian Controversy. 

The question in dispute between calvinists and ar- 
minians, forms the gordian knot in theology. The 
eageriiess which some have show^n to condemn 
the gospel, on accour?t of the controversies which a- 
lienate men from each other, has only betrayed their 
own ignorance or prejudice; for, if the dispute which 
we have now to record, has formed christians into 
hostile sects, did it not also divide heathens into dif- 
ferent schools of philosophy ? And if the controversy 
has been more eagerly agitated in modern than in an- 
cient timee, it only indicates that Christianity has 
rendered the heart of man more sensible to the im- 
portance of his relation to a moral governor, and in- 
vigorated his intellect to perceive all the difliculties 
w'hich attend the investigation of the subject. 

To borrow an apostolic simile, the first christians, 
'• like new-born babe^," had few differences ; for a 
grateful sense of recent deliverance from ruin ai- ach- 
ed them to their great deliverer, and to all who were 
iellow^ heirs of the same grace ; so that " the multi- 
tudes of them that believed w^ere of one heart 'and 
one soul." But when arianism had kindled the fire 
•f controversy, pelagianism soon followed to ieed the 

S U 



346 ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. LECTURE XVIL 

flames. Those who now adopt a modification of this 
latter system, suppose it to be that of the Scriptures, 
and, of course, of the first Christians ; but it is unde- 
niable, that Augustine, who took the calvinistic side 
against Pelagius, was hailed as the champion of the 
ancient faith. Augustinianisra was, from the time oi 
its celebrated father, the creed of the church ; but 
like the catholic doctrine of the Trinity, it gained 
such a triumph as extinguished the dispute, and left 
us much in the dark concerning the sentiments of sub- 
sequent ages. That the thick nighty which envelo- 
ped rhe christian world during the ninth and tenth 
centuries, obscured the doctrines of grace^ is mani- 
fest by the martyrdam of Godeschalcus ibr maintain- 
ing the sentiments of Augustine. 

The Waldenses and Wicklifiites were charged by 
the papistical party withholding the doctrines which 
were afterwards termed Calvinistical ; but the refor- 
mation so directed the general attention to other ob- 
jects, that this controversy was for a time abandoned. 
Luther, first among reformers maintained the leading 
sentiments of the pastor of Geneva, in a book enti- 
tled, '•' de Servo Arbi^rio,'' written in answer to Eras- 
mus, who had maintained the Romish doctrine of 
free-will. While, however, it would be difficult, if 
not impossible, to find any thing more Calvinistic 
than these pages of Luther, it has fallen to the lot of 
Calvin to embody the system, and stamp it with his 
name. His christian institutes have entered so fully 
into this most awfully profound department of theolo- 
gy, that they are considered as the standard of these 
sentiments ; though many who firmly maintain their 
general truth, consider them capable of a more defen- 
sible st.Uement. Calvin saw his system received as 
the creed of protpstants ; for the doctrines which 
bear his name were adopted, not only in Geneva, but 
in vSwiizerland. France, Holland, England, and Scot- 
land. 

But it is proper briefly to state the sentiments of 
the contending parties on these intricate and super- 



CENTURIES XVI. XVI 11. 347 

human topics ; they are commonly called the five 
points; election, particular redemption, efficacious 
grace, freewill, and final perseverance. 

The following positions comprise in a summary 
form the controverted opiiiians ; but it must be pre- 
mised, that both parties believe, that justification is 
bj faith alone, without human merit ; and that many 
of the most famous controversists difTer in minute 
ponits aiid verbal explanations. 

1 . The Calvinists aflirm, that God has chosen a 
certain number of the human family in Christ, unto 
everlasiiijg glory, before the foundation of the world, 
accordiiig to his immutable purpose, and of his free 
grace and love, without the least foresight of failh, 
good works, or any conditions to be performed by 
the creature. On the contrary, the Arminians main- 
tain, that the Deity has not fixed the future state of 
mankind by an unconditional decree; but determin- 
ed from all eternity to bestow salvation on those, who 
he foresaw Avould persevere to the end in their faith 
in Jesus Christ ; and to inftict everlasting punishment 
on those, who should continue in their unbelief, and 
to the end resist his divine grace. 

2. The Calvinists assert, that Jesus Christ by his 
death and sufferings made atonement for the sins of 
the elect only. This position the Arminians deny, 
and contend, that Jesus Christ by his death and suf- 
ferings, made an atonement for the sins of all mankind 
in general, and of every iiidividual in particular; 
that however, none but those who believe in him, can 
be partakers of their divine benefits. 

3. The Calvinists believe, that mankind are totally 
depraved, in consequence of the fall ; and by virtue 
of x4dam's being their federal head, the guilt of his 
sin w^as imputed, and a corrupt nature conveyed to 
all his po;4erity, from which proceed all actual trans- 
gressions; and that by sin we are made subject to 
death, and all miseries, temporal- spiritual and eter- 
nal. The Arminians reply, that mankind are not to- 
tally depraved, and that depravity does not come 



I 



348 ECCLESIASTICAL HISTeRY. LECTURE XVil. 

upon them bj virrue of Adam's being their pubhc 
head ; but that mortaUly and natural evil only are the 
direct consequences of his sin to his posterity. 

4. The Calvinists maintain, that all whom God has 
predestinated to eternal life, he effectually calls by 
his word and spirit, from sin and death, to grace and 
salvation by Jesus Christ; — on the contrary, the Ar- 
minians contend, that divine grace in the conversion 
of sinners is not irresistible. 

5. The Calvinists believe^ that those whom God 
calls and has sanctified by his spirit shall not finally 
fall from this state of grace— while the Armiiiians af- 
firm, that believers in Christ may apostatize and per- 
ish in their sins. The controversy on these five 
points in its present form and features commenced 
^\ith Arminus in Holland, and continued to rage 
with much acrimony during the reign of Charles I. 
in England, and among the Jansenists and Jesuits in 
France; and subsequently, it has assumed a very 
prominent station among the modern theological de- 
bates, from its having been sanctioned and publicly 
adopted as the creed of John Wesley and his follow- 
ers, which constitutes the present line of demarcation 
between them, and all the other more numerous de- 
nominations of Christians. 

This collision of opinion has involved combatants 
of the highest order. Not to mention Auaustine and 
Calvin — Goodwin wrote with areat ardour and abili- 
ty in defence of Arminianism, and published a vol- 
ume entitled " Redemption redeemed," which recei- 
ved the honor of being confuted by Dr. Owen. After 
him appeared Jonathan Edwards, whose work on 
the " Freedom of the will," might have settled the dis- 
pute. He proved with what may be called a prodigal- 
ity of evidence, that from the nature of the human 
mind a necessity of consequence must exist in human af- 
fairs^ and not only confirmed this, both by the general 
tenor of Scripture, and a multitude of particular 
texts, but drove the contrary notion off the field by 
^ reductio ad absnrdiim that is a dev elopement of its 



CENTVBIES XVI. XVIII. 349 

absurdity, so complete, that nothing like an answer 
couid ever be given. The opposite party either shut 
their eyes, or steeled tlie'r hearts against his argu- 
ments; concluding that they could not be true; 
because as they said, they contradicted the feelings 
oi Loture, the testimoiiy of conscience, and the lan- 
gufige of scripture, which all concurred to prove, 
that we are moral agents and not mere machines. — 
Hence Fletcher, the ablest of the arminian writers, 
admits one species of necessity, and contends ear- 
nestly for it, in opposition to Edwards, who wrote 
his book to establish the same kind of necessity. 
Once, indeed, the Vicar of Madeley seems fairly to 
fac^^ the American, when Edwards contends that eve- 
ry kind of necessity is not incompatible with that free- 
dom of the will which is essential to moral agency, 
praise and blame ; because God is necessarily holy, 
devils are necessarily or irreclaimably evil ; yet nei- 
ther the best nor the worst beings act by compulsion ; 
the one deserve praise and the other blame. The 
manner in which Fletcher attempts to answer this 
would be amusing, were it not a melancholy specta- 
cle, to see such a man attempt to defend himself and 
others from the force of truth. 

The conflict has been lately revived with such in- 
tellectual force and holy temper, that "we have 
scarcely any thing further to expect or wish." Tuck- 
er's Predestination is a very superior work in a small 
compass — while Tomline's pretended refutation of 
Calvinism has educed investigations which render 
any further replication superfluous. Williams' Es- 
say on the Equity and Sovereignty of God, with his 
answer, and Scott's repl} to that Hierarch, have so 
trium})hantly demolished his prelatical ignorance, 
inconsistencies and dogmatism, that if accuracy of 
distinctions, and the practical tendencies of each 
system morally considered could be impartially re- 
viewed, the disputants must be silent forever. 



350 



ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY, 



LECTURE XYII. 



///. The Baptismal contro^^ersy. 
To an enlightened and teeeling disciple of Jesns, 
nothing in the modern history of Christia^uty is cal- 
culated to excite more astonishment and pain, than 
the almost impassable gulph which ignorance and 
bigotry combined have contrived to exca\ate, be- 
tween the professed followers of the Li nb, upon this 
non-essential department of our common faith lod 
praciice. If we contrast the factitious iiiiportaace 
given to the divisions of s^ntime^t upon this topic, 
with its intrinsic moment as revealed in the sacred 
oracles, we are almost at a loss ^o unravel the mo- 
tives in which such irrecoiicileable sep:<rations origi- 
nated or by what infatuation among children oft%^ same 
devotion^ they can have been perpetuated, I nc cal- 
vinistic majority ofthe^eow^ world is so vast, that the 
minority as to numb ts, arc comparitively u^rjts ; and 
with regard to all the points necessary to s ilvntion, 
whether they be the doctrines, the obii^z*^ions. or 
the duties connected with evaiigelical claims, howev- 
diversified their explications upon minor matters, 
the whole body are identical. An Idolater lately de- 
livered from the darkness and thraldom which en- 
circle the temple of Juggernaut, might therefore be 
justly overwhelmed with conflicting emotions, when 
he primarily understands, that as soon as he has 
deserted from the camp of the enemy and engaged 
in the service of Immanuel, the divisions and secta- 
rian proselyting spirit of his new Friends m^\ entan- 
gle him in a perplexing labyrinth, from which nothing 
but the arrest of death can liber le him. The 
non-intercourse tacitly enacted between the an- 
cient Jew^s and the Samaritans, is inconceivebly 
more defensible than the modern pi<rtitio i-wall be- 
tween the adherents of infant and ?id ih b ;)tism ; * d 
especially, if itbe considere -/hat the Autipcedo R - 
lists exclusively, were the prime artificers employed 
in erecting this anti-biblical barrier not 30 ) years 
since ; and that they still are the only craftsmen, who 
in every successive generation, have combined to 



CENTURIES XVI. XVllI. 351 

append the buttresses requisite to support the unhal- 
lowed and tottering i'abric. Among the disputants 
upon this jejune subject, no diversity of opinion exists, 
respecting the degeneracy and helpless condition of 
man by naiure ; or the necessity, the method, and 
the value of christian redemption by faith in Jesus, 
the Son of God; or the imperious demand of full and 
persevering obedience to all the Saviour's mandates ; 
or the destiny of man as an immortal creature, the 
recipient oi endless wo, or felicity everlasting — in 
the splendid objects of faitb, the pure animation of 
hope, the ardent transports of love, and the peaceful 
serisibilities of devotion, these sons of strife are in- 
di>-oi'jbly cemented ; assuredly, therefore nothing 
less than a '• thus saith the Lord" should be permit- 
ted to impede their harmony ; or to interrupt their 
performance of the eleventh, the paramount com- 
mandment, "- Love one another as 1 have loved you;" 
05- to extuiguish the peculiar heaven-born characte- 
ri (soithe immaculate Redeemer's similitude, by 
which an ungodly world can most lucidly recognize 
their unioii wiih him; for " all men shall know that 
ye are my discipie . if ye lia e love one to another." 
The subjacts ii dispute involve three mquiries — 
in what mode mu^t water be applied in christian 
Baptism ? — to whom may the ordinance be adminis- 
tered ? — is the immersion of the candidate, when 
adult, under water, in the name of the Father, and 
the Son, and the Holy Gf ost, by a person who him- 
self had previously been plunged when he was bap- 
tized, anindispensibie prerequisite to reception into 
the Christian churcli, and to admission at the Lord's 
table, which is the capital exhibition of the commu- 
nion of all saints ? These and all the collaieral 
qu^^stions are answered by the reply which is m.ade 
to the third query; and the various divisions of the 
Antipoedo Baptists respond in the affirmcHive ; while 
al? ^ther denominations of christians since the Helor- 
mation, and the universal world of believers, prior to 
the establishment of the church by Constantine, or 



352 



ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. 



LECTURE XVI r. 



the elevation of the Popedom, and excluding the in- 
termediate 900 years of superstitious darkness, una- 
nimously deny the correctness of their unsocial posi- 
tion. 

Nearly a century elapsed, after Menno, in 1 536, 
organized Insfrst society of exclusive communionists, 
before his novel opinions attracted any peculiar no- 
tice, or opposition ; but from the period when the 
chief topics of the controversy, began to excite pub- 
lic debate and constituted another ingredient in the 
theological babel, few subjects have elicited such a 
parade of useless learning, and so large a quantity of 
acrimonious uncharitableness and vehemence. It is 
not wonderful, th.,t the grand adversary of God and 
man should have fanned the flame of contention after 
it w^as once enkindled ; but how that most abhorrent 
dogma, close communion, as it is at present held by 
those who for the sake of distinction, denominate 
themselves the regular Baptists, could have been in- 
vented, credited, and propagated, is among the unac- 
countable mysteries of human depravity and stupe- 
faction. Latterly, however, the strongholds of dull- 
ness and delusion have been battered with gigantic 
force, by Robert Hall in his terms of communion ; 
and by Dr. Mason in his plea for christian commu- 
jQion;— so that the prospect brightens, and sanctions 
the indulgence of hope that these mountains of intol- 
erance will ere long " be made low%" A severer 
censure upon the abettors of this principle and prac- 
tice, was never uttered, than that pronounced by 
William Ward, the Serampore Missionary, in his 
farewell letters ; after describing the state of Chris- 
tianity in the United States from his own inspection, 
he observes, " that he had not discovered in his 
jeurneys, one Baptist church which practized open, 
that is, christian communion." On the mode and 
subject of Baptism, the discrepance is no less sin- 
gular; the close communionists confine the ordinance 
to adults by immersion ; while their more philan- 
thropical fellow-disciples, are willing to enrol both 



CENTURIES XVI. XVUl. 353 

the parewts and their children, in the service of the 
captain of salvation ; and are unable to discover in 
the New Testament, either a definite injunction res- 
pecting the method in which baptismal water shall be 
applied, or an authoritative restriction of the ordi- 
uance onlj to adult professors. During the present 
generation, the controversy has been very keenly 
and extensively agitated ; and it must be admitted, 
that the modern combatants in behalf of Antipoedo- 
baptism, have been unusually discomfited; at least 
a very superior and much enlarged spirit of liberal- 
ity to others, and a fraternity of temper altogether 
unprecedented in former periods characterize the 
most enlightened and influential members of the 
Baptist denomination; which authorizes the antici- 
pation, that ere long the pacific prediction shall be 
completed in all its beauty, enlargement and force, 
"Ephraim shall not envy Judah, and Judah shall 
not vex Ephraim ; and the people shall call upon the 
name of the Lord, to serve him with one consent." 2. 
IV. The controversy upon the Government and Discipline 
of the church. 
The origin of this divison among the Protestants, 
lias already been briefly narrated, in the history of 
the English Episcopalian establishment. From its 
results, however, it has been attended with the most 
important consequences ; and the extension oi the 
opinions upon which the Anglo-Puritans primarily 
dissented from the religion enacted by law, has veri- 
"ied several most momentous facts in connection with 
the progress of pure and undefiled religion. Two 
hundred and fifty years have elapsed, since the op- 
ponents of the national church in England assumed 
a distinct and systematic character ; and their in- 
crease has been regular, until they comprize not on- 
ly the incomparably larger portion of the existing 
piety in Great Britain; but also, including those who 
liave descended from them, and who adhere to them 
in theological and ecclesiastical doctrines, at present, 

2.. Appendix XX. 

2 W 



354 ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. LECTURE XVII. 

embody the vast majority of evangelical christians 
throughout the globe. The annals of the Puritans, 
the Non-conformists, and their modern successors, in 
connection with the state of religion in our Repub- 
lics, have demonstrated in a superlative degree the 
noble qualities of Christianity ; and have evinced 
beyond all cavil, that the coalition between church 
and state is destructive of vital godliness, and that 
all spiritual authority, when supported by the civil 
power, is a sanguinary, and doubly traitorous despot- 
ism, equally injurious to national prosperity, inimi- 
cal to the bodies and souls of men, and derogatory 
to the supreme King inZion. 

No complaint has more frequently been uttered by 
the Episcopalians in every age, and no sounds have 
been more generally reverberated, than their peeling 
outcries concerning schism; notwithstanding they, 
at the same time, the close communionists excepted, 
are the only distinguished tribe of schismatics in the 
Protestant domains, while they admit the sanctity of 
Popish ordination, and the validity of the sacraments 
administered by a Jesuit ; they deny the ministry, de- 
votions and covenant membership of all other dejiom- 
inations, Lutheran, Presbyterian and Congregational. 
The basis on which they erect this alliance with Po- 
pery, and their aversion from all other Protestants, 
is one of the most senseless absurdities which folly, 
fanaticism or wickedness ever invented to conceal 
the turpitude of tyranny — the divine right and unin- 
terrupted succession of Diocesan Bishops. 3. Hence, 
it is proper to define the w^ord schism^ according to 
its genuine scriptural import. 

Schism denotes a separation in heart and affec- 
tions from those who walk according to the institu- 
tions of Christ, or an entire departure from their 
communion. Who is guilty of this offence } They 
who deny that Jesus is the only head of the church, 
and assume a right to alter, to superadd, or to take 
away from what he established — not those who as- 

3. Appendix XXI. 



CENTURIES 2CVI. XVIII. 355 

Bert his sole authority and who plead for the integrity 
of Christ's constitution. He is not guilty of schism, 
who associates with persons that acknowledge Im- 
manuel as their Lord, helieve the puie doctrines of 
the Gospel, worship Jehovah as the Son of Man pre- 
scribes, and evidence their title to christian disci- 
pleship by their philanthropy to them who love the 
Lord Jesus, and by their separation from the ser- 
vants of Satan. How can that be schism which con- 
sists merely in disjunction from a system which had 
no existence prior to the year 1560; wliich bears a 
resemblance to nothing called christian earlier than 
the fourth or fifth century ; and which in its head and 
organization is altogether papistical ; in very impor- 
tant doctrines, such as baptismal regeneration with 
all its appendages is radically erroneous ; in its wor- 
ship, services and sacraments is either formal or su- 
perstitious; and is totally anti-evangelical in its disci- 
pline ? Is it schism not to declare unfeigned assent to 
all the multifarious code imposed even in its abridged 
form by the episcopacy in this Union ? Assuredly, 
it is full time that this accusation ceased. Schism is 
an alienation of heart from Christ's institutions, not 
from man's inventions. They who would impose 
such fictions on the disciples of Christ, instead of his 
appointments, are the schismatics, not those who 
separate from them for conscience' sake. 

The sacred scriptures reccommmend union among 
christians, with the energy and pathos of divine au- 
thority : and while the church remains in its purity, 
separation from it is an heinous crime. But what- 
ever men touch they defile ; and the whole stream of 
history discovers a tendency to corruption in thq 
best institutions. This takes its rise from the depra- 
vity of human nature, which mistakes or dislikes, 
what God has ordaiued ; and lops off what is dis- 
pleasing, or adds what appears beautiful and vene- 
rable. From this propensity iiowed the system of 
superstition and temporal domination which ended 
in the abyss of popery. 



ci56 



ECCLESIASTICAL HlSTGRY. LECTURE XVlI. 



i 



The reformation arrested this progress of evil, 
light increased : questions were agitated which 
sharpened men's minds, and led to the discovery 
and evidence of many important troths, which had 
not before engaged the attention of the learned and 
religious world. These, as they were discovered 
and believed, formed a part of the mental system, 
and produced trains of reasoning, modes of senti- 
ment, and rules of conduct unknown beibre. 

In consequence of these advantages, pious and 
enlightened men learned to examine matters with 
a more penetrating judgment and nicer discri- 
mination. Their virtue and goodness kept pace 
with their improvements in knowledge. Little to 
the honour of the English character at the era of 
the reformation, the mass of the clergy changed 
backwards and forwards, shifted with the wind, 
and moved with the tide. But in a century after, 
England could boast ol a far more enlightened and 
virtuous clergy, the principlesof thousands of whom 
would not bend with external circumstances, and 
the changing decrees enacted by the authority of 
the state. The act of uniformity required them to 
do what they conceived to be contraiy to the hon- 
our of the glorious Head of the church, and hostile 
to the purity and integrity of his institutions. In con- 
sequence of this, they made a stand, separated them- 
selves from the establishment, and formed those 
societies which remain to the present day. 

That people may differ about trifles is too frequent- 
ly seen ; and when they break offfrom the communion 
of a church on account of these, their conduct is 
highly reprehensible. But there is an extreme on the 
opposite side. When men yield, for the sake of 
peace, to impositions against which conscience re- 
volts, and which conscience condemns as sinful, they 
merit at least an equal degree of blame. In the 
midst, between these extremities, there are great and 
important principles, for the sake of which good men 
may justly make a stand, and which thev may refuse 



GEMURIES XVI. — XMii, 357 

to part with ; and if they cannot otherwise retain 
them, they are warranted to withdraw from that 
church wliich will not allow that they should be re- 
tained by private christians in her communion, and by 
the ministers who otiiciate at her altars. 

Those who stand forward as confessors for truth, 
claim a high rank among the benefactors of the human 
race. Their reward indeed may at the time be from 
heaven alone; and what they receive from man con- 
sist rather in the approbation of succeeding genera- 
tions, than that in which they lived. To them the 
world is indebted for the progress which it has made 
in pure principles, and in the virtues resulting from 
them : and it is from a succession of such men, that 
we have derived all our advancement in those invalu- 
ble truths which ennoble the soul and exalt the char- 
acter. It may perhaps be deemed improper to inscribe 
in this list the names of the Apostles of Christ, as 
their wisdom came immediately from heaven, and 
their opposition to established systems was by divine 
command. But their conduct was a stand for princi- 
ples : and in this respect they take their station at the 
head of the reformers of the world. 

The men who, in different countries, lifted up their 
voice against the monstrous superstitions of popery, 
merit the praise of every succeeding age, for their 
undaunted appearance in times of the most imminent 
danger, in behalf of these glorious principles of divine 
truth, which had long been trodden under foot. But 
they still left much to be done, and a rich harvest of 
laurels to be reaped by those who should come after 
them. In England, during the reigns of Elizabeth, 
James, and Charles the first, hundreds of excellent 
ministers, and ten thousands of pious laymen exposed 
themselves to the tremendous storm of arbitrary pow- 
er and ecclesiastical tyranny ; and rather than yield 
to what they conceived to be injurious to the honour 
of God, and his revealed truth, they submitted to 
the loss of office, of affluence, and their country ; 
and many sought refuge in the wilds of America, 



358 ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. LECTURE XVII. 

But it was reserved for the non-conformists to 
stand forth, as a body, in defence of what they ac- 
counted truth and duty, and to suffer the loss of eve- 
ry thing but one — their principles. They are re- 
garded with the highest veneration as the founders 
of that building which has remained in its original 
strength to the present day, and appears one of the 
fairest structures on the face of the earth. 

A brief outline of the fundamental principles 
which all those maintain, who deny the peculiar 
and haughty assumptions of the professed descend- 
ants from "him who sitteth in the temple ofGcd as 
God" is requisite to elucidate the foundation on which 
the disciples of religious liberty have erected their 
spiritual temple, and which they are convinced will 
kt some future period circumscribe the whole world. 

"Jesus Christ is the sole head of the church — the 
sacred scriptures are the only rule of faith and prac- 
tice — private judgment in all matters of religion is 
an inalienable right-— every man may publicly pro- 
fess that religion which his private judgment dictates 
to be from God—the church ought to have no con- 
nection with the state, for Christ's kingdom is not of 
this world." 

The objections which the Puritans and the Non- 
conformists originally made to the Episcopalian es- 
tablishment of England, and which have augmented 
their force with every succeeding generation, may be 
subdivided into two classes ; those which advert to 
that monstrous coalition, church and state alone ; and 
those which are equally applicable to episcopacy as 
a system, whether at Rome, Canterbury or in this 
Union. The national church of England is the off- 
spring of state policy, created and preserved by the 
civil government, merely as an additional instrument 
to oppress the subjects under tfieir sway — the offices 
and dignities of the national church which are un- 
scriptural and popish— the system of patronage which 
destroys every evangelical privilege secured to chris- 
tians in the election of theirchurch officers — and the 



CENTURIES XVI. — XVUf. 



35B 



tyrannical persecuting spirit of the Hierarchy, tle- 
monstratiiig that she is exactly what she claims to be, 
the legitimate offspring of that Babylon the great, 
who was '^ drunken with the blood of the saints, and 
with the blood of the martyrs of Jesus' --these consti- 
tute an insurmountable barrier to the alliance of en- 
lightened christians with that establishment, when 
worldly interests either in possession or hope, excite 
no adventitious predilections. 

In addition to the sandy foundation upon which 
the Episcopalians have attempted to erect their su- 
perstructure, other principles of opposition are sta- 
ted ; which suffice to alienate all those who are evan- 
gelically instructed from Protestant Episcopacy, as 
it has ever displayed its qualities since Elizabeth 
and her parliament in 1560, out of the chaos of Po- 
pery, by their legislative enactments, gave it a visi- 
ble form and indelible character. 

" The church," says the twentieth article, '' has 
power to decree rites and ceremonies, and authority 
in matters of faith ;" that is the yery deformity of po- 
pery without a mask ! An unalterable continually 
repeated form ol prayer, is in itself most decidedly 
objectionable for public worship ; for it incapacitates 
the minister from offering supplications to God ex- 
tempore, and as the experience of many centuries 
has universally evinced, generally eradicates the 
spirit of devotion in the w^orshippers : this would be 
an insuperable offence, its being always the parent 
oflukewarmness and formality, even were the doc- 
trines and spirit otherwise evangelical ; but the 
modern episcopalian liturgical service is additionally 
repulsive; its Popish origin, its tedious length, its 
tiresome repetitions, its anathematizingv if not con- 
tradictory creeds, its errors in the offices of baptism, 
confirmation, visitation of the sic k> and the burial 
service. These last were never more lucidly and 
briefly illustrated than in the following anecdote. 

•* Matthew Mead an eminent non-conformist, was 
politely addressed by a nobleman, • I am sorry, sir, 



361} 



EibCLESIASTICAL HISTORY 



LECTURE XVII. 



we have not a person of your abilities in the estab- 
lished church. They would be extensively useiul 
there.' You do not, my lord, require persons of great 
abilities in the establishment. ' Why so, sir, what do 
voumean?" When you christen a child, you rege- 
nerate it by the Holy Ghost. When you confirm a 
youth, you assure him of God's favour and the for- 
giveness of sins. When you visit a sick person, you 
absolve him from all his iniquities; and when you 
bury the dead you send them all to heaven. Gf 
what particular service then can great abilities be 
in your communion.'^" 

The substitution of sponsors for parents, and the 
gign of the cross in baptism — the imposition oi kneel- 
ing at the Lord's supper — the restriction of every 
minister to an immutable form of administering the 
sacraments — and the almost total destitution of all 
christian discipline are very strong counteracting 
impediments to the union of spiritually disposed per- 
sons with a system where Laodicean inflation and 
dedth-like stupor not only rule, but which antichris- 
tian tempers, all its sectarian doctrines and canons 
are calculated to nurture and perpetuate. 

But if all these difficulties could be obv^iated, one 
remains ; and it is truly amazing, how any pious scrip- 
turally intelligent disciple of the Redeemer can 
submit to it, that is, the tripartite ordination. Nothing 
can be more contradictory to the simplicity and pu- 
rity of the Gospel, or the analogy of faith, than E- 
piscopal sentiments and practice upon this topic ; 
for it is evident, that whatever ordination may be, 
the person is introduced by it into the whole ministry 
of the Gospel New Testament ; therefore this 
bastard popery is utterly destitute oi foundation 
in the sacred Scripture. Thrice must the Bishops 
hands.be laid on the head of the candidate, before 
it receives all the virtue which they contain and im- 
part. The first imposition makes him a deacon ; by 
this he is qualified " to assist the priest when he min- 
istereth the holy communion, and to help him in the 



CENTURIES XVI. XVlJI. 361 

distribution thereof; and to read the holy Scriptures 
and homilies in the church ; and to instruct the youth 
in the catechism; in the absence of the priest to 
baptize infants, and to preach, if he be admitted 
tfiereto by the bishop." More than these t!ie dea- 
con cannot do without a second touch. But why is 
a larger measure of ecclesiastical existence necessa- 
ry to dispense the ordinance of the Lord's supper 
than the ordinance of baptism? But after d deacon 
is transmuted into a priest, a certain portion of vir- 
tue still remains in the onlainer : and it is not till the 
third touch of the episcopal hands that the whole of 
the virtue is conveyed ; and then having drained 
them dry, all priestly power i^ conferred, and the per- 
son being now a bishop has attained the full stature 
of a perfect ecclesiastical man : and besides the per- 
formance of all the functions, for which he had receiv- 
ed authority by his previous ordinations, he has 
acquired ability to confirm the youth, and to ordain 
deacons and priests. This ceremonial, however, 
although most preposterous ?nd indefensible, is a 
nonentity compared with the matter. In " the form 
for ordering priests," the bishop having his hand 
upon the candidate's head, says, ^'receive the Holy 
Ghost for the office and work of a Priest; whose sins 
thou dost forgive, they are forgiven, and whose sins 
thou dost retain, they are retained." Episcopalians 
have branded almost all the other disciples of 
Jesus, except the Papists from whom they plead lin- 
eal descent, with the degrading appellation of fanat- 
ics and enthusiasts. The utmost flights of the anti- 
papists, respecting the influences of the Holy Spirit 
are the coolest sobriety of reason contrasted with 
this blasphemous assumption ; they would really 
merit the stigma of arch fanatics and arch enthusiasts, 
did they believe that by the laying on of the hands of 
presbytery, the gift of the Holy Ghost was con- 
firmed, and the power to forgive sins was received. 
Certainly the largest portion of the most sublimated 
essence of fanaticism and enthusiasm, which was 

2X 



I 



3132 EC<:LESIASTICAL HISTORY. LECTURE XYIl. 

ever seen or known upon earth, is concentrated 
at an Episcopal ordination. " How dreadful is it 
that the service bj which a person is ordained to 
the most solemn office should contain untruths ! — 
That a bishop should introduce a person into the 
priest^s office by saying what is untrue, and by pro- 
fessing to give what he knows he cannot give, is 
sufficient to rend the hardest heart with grief. That 
the person too, who is ordained, should hear untruths 
solemnly addressed to him in a highly religious act, 
and profess to believe that he receives what he knows 
he does not receive, and what neither the bishop nor 
any one else can give, is deeply to be deplored by 
ev^ry friend of truth. Such a commencement of the 
priestly office augurs ill for its future effects. At 
the consecratiop of a bishop there is a repetition of 
the same unedifying scene. The bishop ordaining 
addresses an untruth to the bishop ordained: the 
bishop ordained receives the untruth, and professes 
to believe it as a sacred verity, and to go forth under 
such an impression to the execution of his exalted 
office. Infidels have but too much cause to scoff, 
and to ridicule what is boasted to be the fairest r«^- 
presentation of the religion of Jebus Christ. 

If any thing more were requisite to develope the 
true character of this mummery, and burlesque upon 
the sacred volume, and the gospel ministry, it is 
discoverable in the fact, that a large majority of 
the episcopal bishops and priests, from the first or- 
ganization of the Hierarchy to this present genera- 
tion, have denied and ridiculed the very notion of 
any spiritual communication from the Great Head of 
the church to his follovers in the regeneration by 
the Comforter, the Holy Ghost. 

The nature and effects of religious state establish- 
ments, have also lately become a popular subject of 
inquiry ; and all those, who from whatever cause 
they may have opposed the different diocesan Epis- 
copacies, have coalesced, in arraying themselves 
against the support of the kingdom of Christ Jesus* 



CENTURIES iVI. XVllI. 363 

by carnal weapons of warfare ; but the living and in- 
fluential example of these States with respect to the 
equaUtj of all religious denominations is irresistible ; 
and aided bj the unrestricted energies of the press 
will most effectually butter down the Jericho of ec- 
clesiastical arrogance and corruption. 

It is neither necessary nor practicable to describe 
all the minor distinctions into which the theological 
interpretations of divine re^^elation are subdivided : 
many sects are separated merely by ceremonial ob- 
servances, or by diflferential shades so unimportant, 
that it is difficult to divine the causes of their pro- 
longed alienation from each other ; and this is pecu- 
liarly the case in reference to the prominent and 
essential doctrines of the sacred Scriptures. 

During the present age, the spirit of sectarian 
bigotry has indubitably decreased in an immense 
ratio — large quantities of antichristian coldness have 
been immolated upon the altar of evangelical phi- 
lanthropy — and a considerable portion of the steam 
of strife has become mingled with the purer fire for 
the welfare of men, which is enkindled by a devoted 
attachment to the honour of Jesus, and a burning 
zeal for the salvation of souls. But Christianity 
unfolds a still more brilliannt prospect, and encou- 
rages us to exult in the approach of that auspicious 
morning, when our corruption, liability to error, 
prejudices, and voluntary blindness, the sources of 
all controversy, shall vanish away, and the irradia- 
tions of truth shall be so splendid, uniform, operative 
and universal, that " the light of the moon shall be 
as the light of the sun, and the light of the sun shall 
be sevenfold, as the light of seven days. 

Hasten, O Lord, that glorious era ! Amen. 



M 



The Indepmdents or Congregationalists—tke Baptists — 
the Moravians — the Methodists — and the Quakers — 
with the minor denominations. 



These divisions constitute the principal bodies of 
modern Christians ; but to avoid misconception, it 
is necessary to particularize wherein these terms are 
applied. No distinction exists between the Congre- 
gationalists and the Baptists, strictly so called, either 
in theological doctrines, or ecclesiastical discipline; 
the barrier between these dissidents, consisting mere- 
ly in the mode and subject of Christian baptism. One 
fact connected with this topic is truly remarkable ; 
all the Baptist Churches without exception, have u- 
niformly been organized upon the principles of the 
Independents : and although these have always been 
the chief supporters of the Calvinistic standards, nev- 
ertheless all those who have associated together to 
establish their own different explications of Christian- 
ity have adopted the Congregational system : thus, 
the Antinomians when not as individuals, incorpora- 
ted with any society ; the Universalists of every 
gragle from the Believers in a temporary purgatory 
and final hell-redemption, to the absolute rejecters 
of all future punishment ; the General Baptists, of all 
classes of opinions; and the offspring of Socinus, 
whether they be semi-arians, or mere Humanitarians, 
are in their congregated capacities all governed ac- 
cording to the discipline of the early Independents 
— and hence, in these States, a perfect misapprehen- 
sion of the character of the primitive Puritans and 
their lineal successors has long existed to the great 
injury of the most dignified men in the Protestant 
world. 1. Many of the Congregationaiists occasion- 

1. Appendix. XXH. 



CENTURIES XVI. XVlll. 3G5 

ally, and the Methodists systematically practice both 
luethods of administering the water in the baptismal 
ordinance, and lu infants and adults — therefore, the 
system of exclusion is founded upon principles on 
which they disagree, which of course must be consid- 
ered paramount to those upon which the parties are 
at concord. Respecting their numbers, the United 
Brethren or Moravians are very inferior to either of 
the other principal sects ; but they claim a very dis- 
tinguished station among the followers of the Lamb, 
on account of their unwearied diligence, and widely 
extended missionary efforts, as from their body, pri- 
marily appeared those who sacrificed all earthly 
hopes upon the altar of Christian philanthropy for 
the souls of men. In doctrinal opinions, they are 
much in union Vvith the Methodists ; and in many of 
their regulations, there is a great analogy ; but the 
connection which subsisted between the primitive 
Methodists and the Moravians has long been dissol- 
ved ; and notwithstanding their general similitude, 
they are now as completely severed as any other of 
ihe modern sects. The differences between the 
Methodists, the Quakers, and the other denomina- 
tions are more perceptible and important. It must 
also be remembered, that many of the English Non- 
conformists in 1662, were Presbyterians in discipline; 
but they gradually either renounced or did not con- 
tend fo? their sentiments ; and from the oppressions 
of the tyrants Charles and James ; and the investiga- 
tions and controversies respecting the nature of a 
Christian Church, the Presbyterians in England grad- 
ually declined ; and although at the period of the 
revolution in 1688, they continued more numerous 
than either the Independents or Baptists, yet the pre- 
dominance of the Episcopal hierarchy, with the jea- 
lousy of the civil government respecting all large ec- 
clesiastical bodies, the absolute impracticability of 
enforcing the Presbyterian system in its compactness 
and detail, amplified influence of the Congregational 
discipline, and increasing repugnance of the English 



I 



366 ECCLESIASTICAL History. lecture xvjii. 

Dissenters to all ecclesiastical legislative judicatories^ 
has almost totally extirpated them. The Congrega- 
tions which were originally collected by the Noncon- 
formists of that denomination, are now embodied with 
the Independents ; or retaining their ancient appel- 
lation, without their characteristics, for the sake of 
the property which has been bequeathed to the 
minister and the hearers in that house of worship, 
are become societies in which every species of dis- 
cordant error may be discovered. This statement, 
however, does not apply to the churches on the bor- 
ders of Scotland, many of which are connected with 
some of the different Presbyteries which have ori- 
ginated in the Secession. 

The northern part of Ireland was occupied after 
the Reformation, chiefly by the Scotch, who estab- 
lished their own church platform as determined by 
John Knox and his brethren. But notwithstanding 
their primary success w4th the Papists, and their sted- 
fast adhesion to the exterior of the Presbyterian sys- 
tem, the Irish section of tt^at denomination, including 
the English Puritans who united with them, from a 
variety of causes has never exhibited very prominent 
symptoms of energy and fertility. The almost incu- 
rable prejudices and antipathy of the Papists, the 
oppressions of the Episcopal Hierarchy, the degra- 
dation and wretchedness ot the people in conse- 
quence of the unceasing devastations occasioned by 
military despotism, and the departure from the stand- 
ards of doctrine, all co-operating together have ob- | 
structed the progress, beclouded the lustre and J 
blighted the fruitfulness of this part of the Reformed | 
vineyard. Similar causes have tended both in Scot- j 
land and Ireland to the diminution of Presbyterial 1 
authority. Political expediency ever shifting and ^ 
temporary, not the oracular prescriptions of the go^^ ? 
pel, has so often determined their proceedings, that | 
upon any interesting or important topic, no person of j 
understanding, now anticipates a just decision from | 
the General Assembly of Scotland, or the Synod ©f j 

i 



CENTyBlES XVI. XVIII. 367 

Ulster; if to this we subjoin the invariable persecu- 
tions with which they have assailed every man, whose 
conscience would not permit him to subscribe to their 
contradictory resolutions, or their outrageo.us pros- 
criptions, we need not be surprised, that the Congre- 
tional tree is at present diverging its branches into 
all parts of these Presbyterian domains, and with a 
rapidity and success for which nothing could account, 
but their well known disregard of their doctrinal 
confession, and their authoritative assumption over 
the rights and consciences of Christians. With this 
illustration upon which it may be necessary again to 
enlarge, the history of the rise and progress of each 
sect, and their present condition in Europe, will 
briefly be narrated. 

The Independents. 
This communion is distinguished by maintaining 
that every distinct society of Christians, united for 
religious fellowship and worship, is, according to the 
Scriptures, a church, possessed of full powers to regu- 
late its own concerns, and independent of all foreign 
controul. " There are in the New Testament but 
two original senses of the word which can be called 
ditTerent, though related ; one is when it denotes a 
number of people actually assembled, or accustomed 
to assemble together, and is then properly rendered 
by the English terms congiegation, convention, as- 
sembly, and even sometimes crowd. The other sense 
is, to denote a society united together by some com- 
mon tie ; though not convened, perhaps not convena- 
ble in one place. Where the word is appropriated, 
as it generally is in the New Testament, it denotes 
either a single congregation of Christians, in corres- 
pondence to the first, or the whole Christian commu- 
nity, in correspondence to the second. But in any 
intermediate sense, between a single congregation 
and the whole Christian community, which has been 
called the catholic or universal cKurch, not one in- 
stance can be brought of the application of the word 
in sacred writ." 



368 ECd^ESIASTlCAL HISTORY. LECTURE XV HI. 

No way exists of reaching the sense of our Lord's 
instructions, ' tell it to the church, but by understand- 
ing his \^ordsas they must have been understood by [lis 
hearers. The word is used in the Old Testament in 
two different but related senses ; one is for a whole 
nation, as constituting one commonwealtb or polity, 
the other is for a particular congregation or assembly, 
convened in the same place. Now as the nature of 
the thing sufficiently shows that our Lord did not em- 
ploy it in the first of the two senses, so as to require 
that every private quarrel should be made a national 
affair, we are under a necessity of understanding it in 
the last, as regarding the particular congregation to 
which the parties belonged. Hence, if '^ the visible 
church is a congregation of faithful men ;" a national 
establishment, and even a representative hierarchy 
must equally be exploded as^ unscriptural. 

This denomination maintains tbe right ofthechurcb 
or the whole body of christians, to receive or reject 
their members, and to choose all their own officers ; 
and their principle, which requires the possession of 
real religion in a member participating in the ordi- 
nances of the Gospel, preserves them from intoler- 
ance and persecution ; as none can partake in the re- 
gulation of their ecclesiastical concerns, except those 
who profess to deny themselves, take up their cross 
and follow Christ. They consider that the Apostolic 
churches were all Congregational, and so would have 
continued, had they not been desecrated by the ear- 
ly corruptions, and swallowed up by the spirit of am- 
bitious domination over the consciences of men ; and 
upon a few fundamental axioms, they build their 
house, which they assert is founded upon a rock. 

The sacred scripture contains the whole of reli- 
gion ; and it alone has an authoritative power to bind 
in matters of faith and practice. Nothing ought to 
be inserted in any creed, or system of religion, which 
is not evidently to be found in this book. Things 
not enjoined in the sacred scriptures, they insist, 
should be left indifferent ; so that Christians may 



CKNTURIES XVI. XVlll. ,369 

practice or abstain from them, as conscience dic- 
tntes or expediency directs. The civil magistrate, 
they say, has no authority in the church of Christ.. 
The Christian religion is entirely spiritual, and not 
bii'nded v/ilh the smallest mixture of political institu- 
tioiis. Its olliccs are to be fdled, and its duties are 
to be performed by disciples of Christ, in an indi- 
V diiai capacity. It interferes not v\ith the regula- 
tions of human government : '• Christ's kinsfdom is 
not of this world.''' It is fitted to subsist under any 
governmer/t without interfering vAih their operations. 
And in the exhihitions of Christianity through the 
whole of the New Testament not a single hint is ever 
given, that the civil rulers of the country are at all to 
interfere with the church of Christ, so as to frame 
regulations for his disciples, or to exert an authorita- 
tive intiuence in its affairs. 

Nothing more, they assert, should be required, in 
order to Christian communion, than Christ has re- 
quired ; and all terms ol human invention, in addition 
to Christ's, authoritatively enforced on the conscien- 
ces of men by civil or ecclesiastical rulers are ex- 
ceedingly sinful. Thry maintain that every man has 
a right to judge for himself in matters of religion; that 
all are on a level with respect to the right of enjoy- 
ing liberty of conscience and of worship; and that 
each is under equal obligations to yield to one an- 
other, for the sake of peace, and in order to the 
maintaining of brotherly affection and Christian com- 
munion. 

Ithas already been intimated, that the Puritans 
originated in a controversy respecting the extent to 
which the reformation in the church of England 
sbould be extended. The priestly robes furnished 
the first subject of contention. The garments in 
which they were commanded to officiate., were worn 
by the popish priests in the days of superstition, and 
were considered, both by priests and people, as 
essentially connected with the wonder-working part 
^f their office, and withoiit which these marvels 

2 Y 



i 



370 ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. LECTURE XTIH 

Gould not be done. When bishop Lotimer, in the 
course of his degradation, on being stripped of one 
•of his gari)ients said, ^' Now lean make no more holy 
water," he spoke both the sentiments of the multitude 
and the sentiments of the prelates of theRomish church 
The pomp and authority of the diocesan bishops, the 
number of clergymen who were unable to preach, 
the want of discipline, and the popish remnants^ in 
the system, were loudly censured and a reform was 
implored. The puritans wrote admonitions to parlia- 
ment^ Whitgift answered them, and, Cartwright re- 
plied ; the former was paid for his heterodoxy, by 
beiiig elevated to the archbishopric of Canterbury ; 
the latter who was the champion for the truth, was 
remunerated for his services, with poverty, exile 
and imprisonment. At this period, 1580, Robert 
Brown propagated his opinions with great zeal in 
England, and after having been confined in thirty 
two dungeons and prisons, he fled to Holland, and 
there established a church. Persecution raged 
against the adherents of his opinions; they were scour- 
ged, robbed, confined, and some hanged ; but in vain, 
the doctrines were immortal, and were diflfused with 
astonishing rapidity. 

In 1592, another church was formed in London ; 
these were obliged to change their place of meeting 
continually, as the high commission searched for 
them with tlie keenness of blood-hounds ; they were 
finally discovered, on the same spot where the pro- 
testants assembled for fear of the Papist tormentors 
during Mary's sanguinary government. 

Fifty six of them were sent prisoners to different 
jails about London, where they had the melancholy 
consolation of finding many of their brethren confirmed 
for he same crime of worshipping God. When they 
imigined that twelve months confinement had suffi- 
ciently broken the spirit of Mr. Smith, they asked 
him whether he would go to church. He answered, 
" that were he to do U, he should only play the hypo- 
crite, to avoid trouble; for he judged it utterly un- 



CENTUKICa XV J. XViJl. 371 

lawful." To this one of the commissioners replied, 
" come to church and obey the queeirs laws; and 
be a dissembler, a hypocrite, or a devil it" thou wiit," 
These much-injured men complain ol such treatment 
as was worthy only of a Spanisli inquisition. By 
these cruelties, many of them perished in prison. 
On the cofFni of one of them, whose name was Roger 
Rippon, his fellow- prisoners niscribed the words of 
the royal preacher, "oppression makes a wise man 
mad." They were beaten, and doomed to still se- 
verer confinement, for not attending tlie service of 
the established church in the jail, to w hich they 
were brought for renouncing that service as unscrip- 
tural. 

Barrow requested that he might be allowed a con- 
ference, to investigate the truth. But this was refu- 
sed ; for it was not truth or reason, but submission, 
which the persecutors wished to obtain. He, as 
well as Mr. Greenwood, his companion in suffering, 
were condemned to die, and were hanged at Tyburn, 
breathing such a spirit of piety towards God, and 
such loyal prayers for the queen's prosperity, that 
when she was told in what manner tliey died, she 
discovered a momentary pang of regret. 

Shortly after Mr. John ap Henry, was seized and 
condemned for the same crime. Though he decla- 
red, that not a day passed over his head, in wliich 
he did not commend the queen's estate to God, his, 
death-warrant was signed by the archbishopv It 
was immediately sent to the sheriff^ who erected 
the gallows the same day, seized the victim at din- 
ner, and hanged him in the afternoon. 

The controversy was continued. Hooker devoted 
a large part of his life to writing his ecclesiastical 
polity^ which contains all that ingenuity and literature 
can adduce in favour of episcopacy and religious 
establishments. " The architecture of the fabric re- 
sembles Dagon's temple; it rests mainly upon two 
grand pillars, which as long as they continue sound, 
will support all its weight. The first is " that the 



37^ 



ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. LFXTUBE XVUL 






church of Christ like all other societies, has power 
to make laws for its well being ;" and the second, 
that where the sacred ScripUnes are silent, human 
authority may interpose." But if some Sampson 
caa be found to shake these pillars from their base, 
the whole edifice, with the lords of the Philisriries 
in their seats, and the multitude with which it 
is crowded, will be isivolved in one ct^mmon ruin. 
Grant these two principles, and his arguments can- 
not be confuted. But if a puritan can show that the 
church of Christ is different from all civil societies, 
because Christ h^d framed a constitution for it, while 
he left them entirely to the exercise of their own 
wisdom; and that where the scriptures are silent, 
and neither enjoin nor forbid, no human association 
has a right to interpose its authority, but should 
leave the matter indifferent ; in such a case the sys- 
tem would not be more stable than that of the philo- 
sopher, who rested the earth upon the back of an 
elephant, and that upon a tortoise, and that upon 
nothing." But as error is progressive, so it appear- 
ed in this disputation: the primitive Reformers de- 
clared, that the episcopal estabhshment, was merely 
a creature of state and expedient. Whitgift defen- 
ded it, because it was conformed to the church in 
the fourth century; but Bancroft, boldly proclaimed 
that the order of diocesan ^bishops was of divine au- 
thority ; which, wiih the zeal for the ceremonial 
mummery borrowed from their Romish Mother, dis- 
played by the civil and ecclesiastical authorities, 
increased the number of Puritans, and rendered all 
communion and harmony utterly impracticable. 

The independents from this period continued to 
worship in secret, and were often obliged to remove, 
so that in England they were almost unkaown, except 
from the press, by which they maintained and pro- 
pagated their principles. 

John Robinson gathered a church on these prin- 
ciples at Leyden; in his aj)ology, he vrrites, every 




CENTuincs XVI. — XVI !3. 373 

particular society is a complete church; nnd as far 
as regards other churches, immediately r^iid inde- 
pepihiitly under Christ alone. '^ Hence tliey were 
called independents. The church at Leyden grad- 
ually diminished; for while the aged memhers were 
removed by death, their childrt^n married irito Dutch 
families : it was therefore determined after much 
coiisultation, that the youiiger part of tliem siiould 
remove to America, where they might at once pre- 
serve their church from extinction, and afford an 
asylum to their brethren from England. 

Tlie independent divines who had tied to Rolland, 
were allowed to assemble in the Dutch churches, 
after the hours of the national worship. Here they 
availed themselves of the liberty and leisure of their 
exile to study the doctrines of the scriptures con- 
cerning church government. But when the change 
of the times invited their return, and afforded an op- 
portunity for the declaration of their principles, they 
published an apologetical narration which they pre- 
sented to the house of commons in the year one thou- 
sand six hundred and forty-thiee. The presbyte- 
rians, who were now labouring to establish their dis- 
cipline, in the place of the old hierarchy, were much 
offended with this step, which tended to obstruct 
their schemes. The parliament appointed the grand 
committee of accommodation, to accomplish an union 
between the two parties, if possible; but if not, to 
contrive some way in which the independents might 
enjoy liberty. 

These efforts for accommodation came to nothing ; 
for the presby terians reflected severely on the indepen- 
dents for asserting that uniformity ought to be pressed 
no further than is agreeable to the consciences of 
men, and the general edification. The leading men 
in the army either avowed themselves independents, 
or patrons of that toleration, which had been de- 
nounced as the idol of this communion. 

Cromwell espoused the same cause, and nominated 
their principal divines to be his chaplains, as well as 




374 ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. LECTURE XYIil. 

to fill the most important places in the universities. 
As their churches had much increased in England, 
they requested leave of the government to hold a sy- 
nod, in order to publish to the world an account of 
their faith and order. To this the protector consent- 
ed. The meeting of the synod was held at the Savoy, 
in 1658. The pastors and delegates of more than a 
hundred congregational churches being assembled, 
drew up their confession of faith. It much resembles 
the Assembly's catechism, but has for an appendix, a 
chapter on the institution of churches, and the order 
appointed by Jesus Christ. 

Public theological disputations were appointed, 
but without harmonizing the disputants ; and many 
volumes were issued in this warfare. The most la- 
mous work was Calderwood's AUare Damascenum ; 
which very much displeased King James. One of the 
Bishops to comiort him, promised to confute it; he 
retorted, '' Man, what answer can you give, here is no- 
thing but the Scripture, reason, and the Fathers."' 
During Cromwell's tolerating protectorate, little was 
written upon the subject of church government. 
From the restoration of Charles II. to the r*^volution 
by William, a period of nearly 29 years, the history of 
the non-conformists in England, of the dissenting de- 
noniinations, Presbyterians, Independents, Baptists, 
and Quakers, is little more than a catalogue of atro- 
cious crimes on the part of church and state, and a 
record of every species of deprivation and agony ^x- 
peri' ned by the unoffending christians who were the 
subjects of their unfeeling biofotry and despotism. 
Exaciions, imprisonment, exil^ to America, dev-ial 
of trial by jury, conviction upon the oath of a single 
informer, who received a third of the exorbitant fine, 
and exclusion from almost all the ordinary modes of 
procuring subsistence, was the mercy of the Hierar- 
chy towards those conscientious disciples. "' Though 
they vvere not actually burnt alive, they were i^>tpn- 
tioimllT starved to death: but while earth n V hr^U 
were against them, heaven appeared in their behalf; 




CENTVPIES XVI. XVIII. 375 

scarcely Elijah himself was more immediately fed by 
Jehovah." Who without horror can attempt to real- 
ize lliat state of society, in which such men as Calamy, 
Baxter, Bunyan, and Owen, with thousands of others 
like them were either imprisoned, robbed, or calum- 
niated, and perfectly impeded in the exercise of their 
ministry ? But the abdication of James H. and the 
settlement of William III. on the throne removed all 
these evils, and by the act of toleration the various 
dissenting denominations have continued generally 
in peace : two attempts only of any importance hav- 
ing been made to demolish their rights of conscience 
— one, under Queen Anne, which liad been adopted 
by the Parliament, and which would have banished, 
in its operation, myriads of the best Christ ian& in the 
islands, to the United States: but death interrupted 
all the projects of the infidel and high church minis- 
ters then in power, for Anne died on the morning on 
which the act was to have commenced its operations, 
and the statute became of r*o force. 

The other scheme was tried about 1 1 years since ; 
but during the century which had elapsed from Anne's 
death, the Dissenters had become so numerous and 
powerful, that the whole design was frustrated mere- 
ly by ttie overwhelming multitude of petitions against 
the tyrannic measure introduced before the House of 
Lords, which in one day dashed all the haughty ex- 
pectatioiis of the Hierarchs into confusion; and the 
menace of a remaining indefinite quantity of memo- 
rials to the same effect inti nidated them so much that 
they expressed their utter astonishment at the nu- 
merical force, opulence, and learning of those whom 
they affected to despise; and voluntarily admitting 
their impotency to effect their object, permitted the 
measure to be unanimously rejected. 

The history of the Independents contains no very 
remarkable events since the toleration act was estab- 
lished ; their increase has been uniform, and they are 
now considerably more numerous than either of the 
other denominations^ and it is generally understood 




« 



376 ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. LECTURE XVIII. 

are multijljing with great rapidity. This body of 
Christians ranks the highest in the catalouge of ben.e- 
factors to the human family ; they have invariably 
been the ardent friends of the rights of conscience, 
stern enemies of civil and ecclesiastical despotism 
lioder any modification, and by their writings and ef- 
forts have contributed more to the illumination, and 
advantage of mankind, than either, if not all, tlie other 
denominations united. To the English Dissenters, 
the world are under inconceivable obligations — to 
tLem we owe the flood of religious tracts, which are 
carrying the everlasting gospel, if a scriptural phrase 
may without the desecration of Jehovah be appro- 
priated ; ^Vupon the wings of the wind"— before (heir 
labours exhibited by Carey, Marshman, Morrison, &c. 
Juggernaut with the Shasters will be burnt, and Con- 
fucius and Fo will be forgotten— and while the high- 
flying Episcopalians have exerted all their energies 
with the Papists, to counteract, if not to demolish the 
institutions organized to disseminate the wonderful 
works of God in every language, the Bible Societies 
originally received from the Dissenters in England an 
impetus which nothing terrestrial will ever be able 
effectually to derange or obstruct. One circum- 
stance connected with the annals of the Independents 
and Baptists furnishes abundant matter for scrutiny ; 
by the principles of their constitution, they are not 
responsible to any extraneous jurisdiction, they have 
no formally established creed of faith, they have no 
authorised rules of discipline generally considered 
as obligatory, they have no standard for doctrine or 
practice, but the sacred Scriptures; and notwith- 
standing, no societies in the records of the Redeemer's 
kingdom, have maintained or do combine so com- 
plete an identity both in theological sentiment and 
ecclesiastical regulations, as these churchesWhich 
are only united by the general communion of saints. 
This unique fact admits of one solution only, their 
house is built upon the rock of ages ; and evinces one 
truth beyond all contradiction, that persecution fgr 




CLNTUniES XVI. XVIII, 377 

conscience' sake is as absnrd and ineffectual, as it is 
iniquitous. At present, the essential principles of 
the English Dissenters predoniinate throughout the 
Protestant portion of Chi-istendom, and these eon- 
federated states, wiiii the South American Republics, 
having adopted them as tlie corner stone of all tlieir 
political iiibric, tfiej may safely be declared inextin- 
guishable, coeval witli the existence of the human 
family, and equally predominant and extensive as the 
gospel of Christ; until during the Millenium, all 
sectarian distinctions will be absorbed by '' the uni- 
ty of the spirit in the bond of peace," and there shall 
be " one God^ one faith, and one baptism." In Eng- 
land and Wales, the Independop.ts riow number near- 
ly 1500 Congregations ; many of them the largest 
bodies of vrorshippers in the Christian world ; be- 
sides a continually increasing; extension of their soci- 
eties in Scotland and frelaiid. 

The Baptists. 
It has already been remarked that those who main- 
tain the peculiar tenets of this denomination, in all 
points assent to the Independents, except on themode 
and subject of Baptism, and tiie qualification for an 
admission to the Lord's Supper. During the early 
period of their history, they were obliged to contend 
against persecution in all its horrors, but they perse- 
vered ; and eventually obtained a share of the bless- 
ings ot legal toleration in Great Britain. The promi- 
nent characteristic of the early Baptists was a deci- 
ded opposition to all literature in tlieir preachers ; 
as an unavoidable consequence of which principle, 
they continued to maintain but a very minor propor- 
tion to the other sects. Since their ministers have 
blazoned forth in meridian splendor, and especially 
since their most honourable missionaries at Seram- 
pore have astounded the world with the exhibition of 
the most splendid human qualities, the Baptists have 
much enlarged their numbers ; but their increase has 
followed, not from their adherence to their principles 
of exclusion, but chiellv from their departure from 

" 2 Z 




378 ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. LECTURE XVlil, 

the original dogmas of the bigots of the past genera- 
tions. 

The first Baptist church such as it is at present or- 
ganized, appears in the history of Menno, nearly 20 
years after the commencement of the Reformation ; 
but this society was so buried among the struggles 
for freedom and the Gospel in Holland, that the pri- 
mary interesting remembrance on record is, the detail 
of their persecutions. From Holland thej fled to 
England, and similar tortures were their allotment 
under Henry VIII. which they had suftered in the 
Netherlands. Even under the Protestant ascenden- 
cy while Edward was King ; his ministers destroyed 
the Anabaptists. Mary, with equal greediness exter- 
minated all parties who did not dance before her 
idols ; and Elizabeth banished and burnt part of a 
congregation which in 1575 had been discovered in 
London. From England, they all subsequently mi- 
grated to Holland, and were originally all in commu- 
nion with the first Independent churches established 
in that republic. The parties at length began to dis- 
pute respecting Baptism, and John Smith, their lead- 
er, conceiving that there was no person at that time 
duly qualified to administer the ordinance, to pre- 
serve the unbroken succession from John the forerun- 
ner of the Lord, baptized himself, and afterwards be- 
came the father of the general Baptists. 

The Baptists are first noticed as a distinct sect in 
England about 1608; these sent one of their church 
to Holland to be baptized ; after his return, he 
baptized the minister and these two the whole church, 
consisting of nearly fifty members. The printed 
works in this controversy commenced in 1618, and 
during all the changes to which the Puritans were 
subjected, they experienced their full share of the 
tyranny and agonies exercised over them by the va- 
rious despots of the 17th century. Three facts will 
forcibly illustrate the nature of the faithful sufferings 
for God to which all the Puritans were exposed ; and 
the almost miraculous interposition of divine provi- 
dence in behalf of the oppressed. 




CENTURIES XVL XV W I. 379 

A congregation of serenth day Ba,ptists in London 
was disturbed, and the preacher John James, was ac- 
cused by a despicable wretch of uttering treasonable 
words. Though it was solemnly sworn by those who 
were present that the words were never uttered, he 
was condemned. His wife presented a petition to 
Charles, who, on hearing the name of the petitioner, 
said, '' O, Mr. James, he is a sweet gentleman." But 
he afterwards so completely changed his tone, as to 
say, " the rogue shall be hanged." For once the 
king remembered his promise, and James was sent to 
join the noble army of martyrs. 

Ten men and two women, taken at a meeting near 
Aylesbury, were required to conform to the establish- 
ment, or abjure the realm. Declaring that they could 
do neither, they threw themselves on the mercy of 
the court : but as the tender mercies of the wicked 
are cruel, they were Condemned to die. Aylesbury 
wa^hrown into the utmost alarm at the bloody sen- 
tence ; for the rest of the Dissenters, who were the 
principal part of the inhabitants, expecting that their 
turn would come next, shut up their shops, and aban- 
doned all attention to business. The son of one of 
the condemned persons rode up to London, where he 
laid the case before William Kiiiln, who, though a 
Baptist, had some interest at court. When chancel- 
lor Hyde laid the case before his majesty, Charles 
seemed much surprised, and promised his royal par- 
don. But as the son was afraid his father would be 
pardoned after he was hanged, he begged for an im- 
mediate reprieve ; which having obtained, he return- 
ed with sufficient speed to save their devoted lives. 

Andrew Gifford was a Baptist minister of hig'i re- 
pute in the west of England. At Bristol, the princi- 
pal field of his labours, he was three times confined in 
Newgate, and once v»'as hurried away Iq Glouce'^ter. 
He had been preaching amon^: liie colliers in the for- 
est of Kingswood, where hi:? son, >\ ho was the sentinel, 
was prevented from giving noiive of the approach of 
the informers, by being frozen lo ihe ground. An m- 




380 ErGLESIASTlCAL HiSTORV. LECTURE XVIII. 

dependent minister, who, pursued by the same har- 
pies, had been preaching in another part of the wood, 
lost his life in attempting to escape across a river. 
But the colliers hearing that Giiford was taken, rose 
in arms for his deliverance. This, however, he de- 
clined, sajing, that he would rather leave his cause 
with God, who, he doubted not, would order all for 
the best. The justices gave him permission to visit 
his wife, and to settle his allairs. But the informers, 
as soon as he reached home, seized him and hurried 
him away to Gloucester, a distance of thirty miles. 
Thus it was ordered, that he entered the castle, just 
as the public ch'mes announced twelve o'clock at 
night. When the six months, for which his mittimus 
had condemned him, was expired, he desired to be 
dismissed. The keeper objected that it was unusual 
to open the gates at midnight, to which Gifford re- 
plied, that they were opened at that hour to let him 
in, and therefore why should they not to let him ^t ?- 
He was discharged, and the next morning about six 
o'clock, arrived an express from London, with an or- 
der to confine him during life, from which hard fate 
he escaped by the relentless fury of his enemies, who 
hurried him away to prison at midnight. 

In the British dominions, the Particular Baptists, 
at present number nearly 750 churches, and the Gen- 
eral Baptists 120 congregations, but while the latter 
rather diminish, the increase of the former is rapid 
and continual. On the continent of Europe, it is im- 
practicable to form any accurate opinion of them, 
though it is believed their number is small. 
The Moravians. 

'^ The unity of the evangelic brethren," the gener- 
al name of all the churches and missions usually call- 
ed Moravians, comprises three distinct classes of 
members. The first consists of those who belong to 
the ancient church of the brethren, which conceives 
itself to be superior in antiquity to all c>ther protes- 
tants. in this class also are arranged all those, who, 
before they joined the unity, were of a communion 




I 



CEKTETRiES XVI. — xvni. 381 

different from the two principal protestant churches, 
the Liuherari and the Reformed. The second class 
of persons vvho^com})ose the grand hody of the uni- 
ted brethren, consists of those who were educated in 
the Lutheran profession. Tlie tlilrd is formed of such 
as have belonged to the reformed, or calvinistic pro- 
testant communion; who, as well as the Lutherans, 
are allowed to retain their former connexion. Hence, 
the title of united brethren designates a hody compo- 
sed of various materials ; not amalgamated by a sac- 
rifice of all distinctions in order to conlbrm to any 
exclusive creeds, but compacted by the adhesive in- 
fluence of a certain spirit diflbsed through the whole 
mass. " Living faith, vital religion, love for the mu- 
tual communion of christian brethren, zeal which 
aims by united efforts to propagate the religion of 
Jesus, bind together," say they, " these different 
classes of Christians." This communion must not, 
therefore, be supposed to resemble an individual, 
composed only of subordinate members, which have 
no separate existence ; but should be compared to 
a church, formed of members who all retain their own 
perfect individuality, though associated by attach* 
ment to attain a common object. 

The ministers of the unity receive ordination of dif- 
ferent kinds, accordiiag to the countries in which they 
labour. They have, indeed, discovered the rare and 
arduous way of combining episcopacy w ith liberality, 
so that if a brother of the ancient episcopal church 
should be placed in a congregation where the minis- 
ter has been ordained by presbyters, he will not hes- 
itate to receive from him the Lord's Supper, or bap- 
tism for his children. Abhorrence of controversy is 
characteristic of the united brethren. 

To cement the union of the brethren they convoke, 
at certain periods, synods, which are composed ol the 
brethren who were entrusted, for a time, with the 
general direction ; of those persons who are at pres- 
ent employed in the public service of the community; 
and of deputies sentby the different congregations. This 




m 



jB2 ecclesiastical history. lecture xvni. 

council watches over the state of religion, the con- 
duct, education, doctrine, preaching, printing, and ap- 
pointment to charges in the chnrch. 

The members of the church are divided, according 
to their sex and state of life, into different classes, 
called church bodies. Unmarried men, and those 
who are termed lads adolescent, remain in the house 
of the single brethren. Unmarried women, whether 
elder or younger, live apart in the single sisters' 
house. In the more numerous churches there are 
similar abodes for the widows and widowers. They 
are under the inspection of an elder of their own 
sex, and work for their support. 

The marriage of the Moravians is always under 
the direction of the church. If the parties have pre- 
viously made no choice the elders point out whom 
they judge suitable : but where an attachment has 
been formed, it is submitted to their final decision. 
When unable to determine in any other way, they 
seek to know the divine will by casting lots, which, 
however, are considered as deciding only what shall 
7iot be done. 

This community adopts the practice of washing 
each other's feet once a year, previously to the cele- 
bration of the Lord's Supper, The women wash 
those of their own sex in a place apart ; and the men 
the feet of their brethren. The dying receive a ben- 
ediction, and the imposition of the hands of the elders. 
In some of their meetings they give the kiss of peace, 
men to men, women to women. 

"The crown of glory and diadem of b^^^uty," 
which adorns the united brethren, is their zeal for the 
propagation of the Gospel among the heathen. In 
this noble career they have outstripped ahnost every 
other communion ; and though they are neither nu- 
merous, nor wealthy, nor powerful, they h?^ve ac- 
complished what would have seemed \o require the 
treasures of princes, or the power of sover^^isjn states. 

The united brethren are undoubtedly a part of the 
surviving chain of the two witnesses who have pro- 




CflNTURlES XTI. XVlll. 3t3 

phesied in sackcloth from great antiquity. In the 
year 890 Bohemia and Moravia received the Gospel 
from two Greek monks, who are thought to have diffu- 
sed pure principles, because, when tlie emperor O- 
tho united Bohemia to his empire, and brought the 
Greek Christians under the see of Rome, they suc- 
ceeded in obtaining for themselves a liturgy in their 
own tongue, and freedom from several popish corrup- 
tions. In the year 1176 the Waldenses arrived in 
Bohemia, and contributed to the preservation of pure 
religion. After having combined purity and zeal, 
witli concealment from the rulers of the apostate 
church, for more than two hundred years, they were 
discovered, in the year 1391, by the imprudence of 
two of their preachers, and dispersed by the blast of 
persecution. Re-animated by the exhortations of one 
Gregory, iis the fifteenth century, they attempted to 
combine in closer union, and took the name of breth- 
ren of the law of Christ. But, perceiving that they 
were thought to be one of the new orders of monks, 
they assumed their present title o^ unitas fratrum^ the 
unity of the brethren. 

While they were studying truth and purity in the 
very bosom of ignorance, corruption, and bigotry, the 
persecution which they endured, induced them to 
cast their eyes around for an assylum from the drag- 
on's rage. Seeing no retreat within the sphere of 
their own knowledge, they sent four deputies to trav- 
el, and inquire, " if there were any where a living 
church free from errors and superstition, and regula- 
ted according to Christ's laws, with which they 
might unite." Failing in this research, they resolved 
that if God should in future raise up reformers of the 
church, they would make a common cause with them. 
When Erasmus began to attract the attention of 
the Cfn-istian world, the united brethren sent their 
confession of faith to this distinguished scholar, who, 
with his characteristic indecision, professed to ap-^ 
prove, but refused to espouse their cause. 




i I 



38C ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. LECTURE XVIII. 

The fame which Luther acquired as a reformer, 
induced the brethren to send to him John Hom and 
Michael Weiss. Luther, delighted to find that a peo- 
ple jet remained to co-operate with him. hailed them 
as brethren, and said, '' be ye apostles of the Bohe- 
mians, and I and mine will be apostles of the Ger- 
mans." When Calvin became acquainted with them, 
he also assured them of his fraternal affection. John 
Alasco is claimed by the united brethren as the first 
person who carried their principles and worship into 
England. 

At Fulneck, in Moravia, a company of the breth- 
ren remained, among whom a considerable revival 
took place, in the year 1720, by means of Christian 
David. Availing himself of their new ardor and de- 
tachment from the world, and reflecting on the evils 
which they had suffered from the want of toleration, 
he applied to Nicholas Lewis count of Zinzendorff 
who allowed them to settle in his estates in Upper Lu- 
satia. A number of families were conducted thither 
by Christian David, who formed their new settle- 
ment, which they called Hernhutt, or the Lord's 
Watch. 

Count Zinzendorff, after a time, joined their com- 
munion, which, when other protestants were content- 
ing themselves with their own privileges, employed 
its force for the conversion of the heathen. 

• Since the death of Zinzendorff, in 1760, the Mora- 
vians, with regard to numbers, in Europe, have been 
nearly stationary — their increase, if any, has been 
imperceptible; but they have been crowned with 
great success in their efforts to disseminate the Gos- 
pel among the aboriginal Greenlanders, the West In- 
dia slaves, and the tribes ofCaffraria. Their theolo- 
gical system is not very luminous or definite; as they 
avoid all reference to the grand controverted points 
in theology. Of their numbers, it is not easy to make 
any calculation ; in England, they have only sixteen 
congregations. 



ci:ntur[es XVI.- — xvui. 385 

The Quakers. 

The society of Friends, as they designate them- 
selves, originated during the period of the civil com- 
motions in England, excited bj tlie despotic acts of 
Charles i. To counteract the effects of the number- 
less misrepresentations in various authors concerning 
their body, they issued in 1800, a summary of their 
history, doctrine, and discipline, from which, the fol- 
lowing narrative has chiefly been compiled. During 
the period referred to, in 1649 and 1650, the unsettled 
state of affairs admitted irregularities even in the 
forms of law, and the administration of justice, which 
in a composed state of society would not have been 
tolerated. Persecution indubitably was armed to ar- 
rest the progress of the primitive Quakers; but the 
parties framed a plausible excuse for their conduct, 
from the gross imprudencies of Fox and his disciples. 
It is certain, that under the pretext, however sincere 
may have been the delusion, of declaring the truth 
according to the light given to them, they entered the 
places of worship of the other denominations, and 
occasioned great confusion. This exposed them to 
the operation of the civil law for the protection and 
peace of public worship; and had the magistrates 
merely enforced the prservation of order, no censure 
could have attached to them ; but the doctrine of reli- 
gious toleration, was at that period, a speculative no- 
tion, held by the enlightened Puritans only, which 
had not attained its controul and influence over the 
whole community; and consequently the Quakers 
experienced sufferings by fines, scourging, and im- 
prisonment. 

'^ George Fox, w^as one of the first of our friends 
who was imprisoned. He was confined at Notting- 
ham in tiieyear 1649, for having publicly opposed a 
preacher, who had asserted that the more sure word 
of prophecy, mentioned 2 Pet. i. 19, was the Scrip- 
ture; George Fox declaring that it was the Holy 
Spirit ; and in the following year, being brought be- 
fore two justices in Derbyshire, one of them scoffing- 

3 A 



It 



■t:V^ 



386 ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. LECTURE XVIII. 

at George Fox, for having bidden him and those a- 
bouiiiim to tremble at the word of the Lord, grave to 
our predecessor the name oi'Quakers; an appellation 
which soon became, and hath remained our most n- 
sual ^lenomination; but they themselves adopted, and 
have transmitted to us, the endearing appellation of 
Friends. 

Persecution, however, continued ; but, when 
Charles II. on the prospect of his restoration, issued 
froo) Breda, amongst other things, his declaration lor 
liberly of cosiscience. it might well have been expect- 
ed (h: rsends would be permitted to exercise their 
relig without molestation. , Yet during this reign 
they not oidy were harrnssed with the oath of alle- 
giance, which in comn^on with all oaths, they scru- 
pled to t ke, And by ^vh■ch they of enincuned tedious 
imprison .nent, and not unfrequently premunire ; but 
new lav..- were made, by which even their meetings 
for wo' 'iip 'r b J 1 them to punishment." 

Their meetnjg house, at Horselydown, near Lon- 
don, was by an order of council, in the year 1670, 
pulled down ; but they assembled on the ruins. They 
were insulted and knocked down. One of them, as 
he lay bleeding on the ground, was so wounded in the 
head, that the brain was visible. When the soldiers 
were asked how hey could behave so cruelly, they 
replied, <•' if you knew our orders, you would say we 
were mercilul." 

When the conventicle act was in lorce, "• the be- 
haviour of tj e Quakers, says Burnet, had something 
in it that h rlied bold. They met at the same place 
and hour, as before. None of them would go out of 
the way, but when they were seized they w ent all to 
prison together, where they stayed without petition- 
ing for release, and when discharged they refused to 
pay any fees. As soon as liberated, they returned to 
their meetings again, and when they found the place 
shut up by the magistrates, they assembled before 
the doors. Thus they carried their point, for the 
government grew weary of them, and were glad to let 
them alone." 



fcX- 




f, 



\ 



CENTUBiES XVI. XV UI. 387 

The iaiprisonments were long, often terminating 
only with the life of the prisoner. In (his reign also, 
the crowds shut up together, increased in many pla- 
ces the common sufferings of counnement ; which in 
some were also augmented by the violent tempers of 
magistrates, or by the barbarity of jailors. The firies 
imposed by the new laws were exacted with a rigour 
that generally oppressed the sufferer, and sometimes 
left him nearly destitute of household goods; and 
several families experienced a separation of the near 
connections of iiie, by the execution of that law which 
subjected our friends to banishment. 

James II. to favour the religion to which he was at- 
tached, suspended the operation of the penal laws a- 
gainst dissenters. Our Friends had iheir shme in the 
benefit arising from this measure ; bui it was not un- 
til the reign of king William, that they obtained some 
degree of legal protection. 

'fhe doctrines of the Quakers are thus generally 
stated : ^' We agree with other professors of J he chris- 
tian name, in the belief of one eternal God, the Cre- 
atoF^'<5»d preserver of the universe; and in Jesus 
Chfist his son, the Messiah, and Mediator of the new 
covenant. 

When we speak of the gracious display of the love 
of God to mankind in the miraculous conception, 
birth, life, miracles, death, resurrection, and ascen- 
sion of our baviour, we prefer the use ci such terms 
as we fiiid in scripture ; and contented with that 
knowledge which divine wisdom hath seen meet to 
reveal, we attempt not to explain those mysteries 
which remain under the veil; nevertheless, we ac- 
knowledge and assert the divinity of Christ u iio is 
the wisdom and power of God unto salvation 

Jo Christ aloae we give the title of the VVord of 
God, and not to the scriptures ; alth()U:^h we hij;hly 
esteem these sacred writin=^s, in subordination to the 
spirit, from wh'ch they wer ''ven forth; ar d we 
hold, w!ih the Apostle Pa' ' ll^ey are ribio to 
make wise unto sai ation, irougli faith which is in 
Jesus Christ. 





388 ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORV. LECTUBE XVIH. 

We reverence those most excellent precepts which 
are recorded in scripture to have been delivered by 
our great Lord, and we lirady believe that they are 
practicable, and binding on every christian ; and that 
in the life to coine^ every man will be rewarded ac- 
cording to his works. And further it is our belief, 
that, in order to enable mankind to put in practice 
these sacred precepts, many of which are contradic- 
tory to the unregenerate will of man, every man com- 
ing into the world, is endued with a measure of the 
light, grace, or good spirit of Christ; by which, as it 
is attended to, he is enabled to distinguish good from 
evi!, and to correct the disorderly passions and cor- 
rupt propensities of his nature >vhich mere reason is 
altogether insuiFicient to overcome. For all that be- 
longs to man is fallible, and within the reach of temp- 
tation ; but this divine grace, which comes by him 
who hath overcome the world, is to those who hum- 
bly and sincerely seek it, an all-sufficient and present 
help in time of need. By this, the snares of the ene- 
my are detected, his allurements avoided, and deliv- 
erance is experieticed through faith in its effectual 
operation; whereby the soul is translated out of the 
kingdom of darkness, and from under the power of 
Satan, into the marvellous liglit and kingdom of the 
Son of God." 

The Friends by their inflexible adhesion to their 
principles, obtained from the British government, an 
exemption which no other denomination in England 
enjoys, the celebration of their marriages without the 
Episcopalian ceremonial. To them belong the un- 
divided praise, of being the only community, who in 
their associated capacity have practically exempli- 
fied the peculiar philanthropy of the Gospel ofChrist, 
upon all the questions originating in the three grand 
pestilences of the human family; national wars; fo- 
rensic litigation; and involuntary perpetual servitude. 
Many individuals have successively appeared who u- 
uited in all their theories ; but with the exception of 
a small modern division of the German Baptists and 



ci:nturies xvi. — xviii. 389 

Moravians ; it is believed that the Quiikors alone, 
as .1 cociely, merit the imperishable eulogy, which 
bclotis:-' lo an uiiceasins: combinalion oi" eiliort to ini- 
pede llie ravages of general war, to extirpate the 
ebullitions of private discord, and to destroy the 
miseries engendered by kidnapping and slavery. Ira 
these points of view, the Friends are the only living 
professors of Christianity who bear a strikiiig simili- 
tude lo tlie miilenial philanthropists. How long 
shall it be, ere a continuaj display of the most abhor- 
rent spirit of cruelty, revenge and injustice, shall be 
proscribed and condemned as totally antichristian } 

Upon this topic, the address may be made to al- 
most all other Christians, '^ Dost tliou approve the 
Friends' opinions of the incurable iniquity of Negro 
bondage, the anti-evangelical nature of legal dispu- 
tations, and the unmeasurable guilt of wholesale 
murder by the armed myrmidons of tyrants in the 
field of battle .'^ then — "^ Go thou and do likewise." 
The Methodists. 

This Society which ranks the third in number of 
all the larger denominations of Christians who dis- 
sent from the Episcopalian hierarchy, appeared in 
1729, having originated in a meeting held by the 
Wesleys, Whitfield, Morgan, Ingham, Hervey, and 
otliers, in the first place to enlarge their knowledge 
of the scriptures, and subsequently to improve their 
own characters by religious conversation and other 
devotional exercises. The commencement of the 
Methodists as a distinct body may be properly im- 
puted to the results ofGeorge Whitfield's preaching 
in the open air: excluded from all access to the 
episcopal churches, he determined ^' to do the ser- 
vice of his Creator, who had a mountain for his 
pulpit, and the heavens for his sounding board, and 
wdio sent his servants into the highways and hedges." 

The society primarily assembled in Fetter lane, 
but several years elapsed before the increase of their 
numbers induced John Wesley to summon the first 
Conference. In he British dominions are two clas- 





390 Ef'GLESIASTlCAL HISTORY. LECTURE XVUI. 

ses of Methodists ; those who were disciples of 
George Whitfield, denominated Calvinisstic, but 
these are gradually declining as a distinct body, and 
are now amalgamating with the independents ; the 
others, and those to whom the apellation is generally 
given, are the followers of John Wesley. During 
several years the early Methodists were all united m 
one body ; they finally separated, in consequence 
of doctrinal disputations respecting the five points 
already stated — Whitfield adhering to the Calvinis- 
tic, and Wesley to the Arminian interpretation. 

The grand points of distinction between the Me- 
thodists and the other denominations are their theo- 
logical tenets ; their government and dicipiine. On 
the former topics, in all that is essential they coincide 
with all the other bodies of Christians; respecting 
the latter, during the life of John Wesley, the Me- 
thodist societies were the popery of Protestantism, 
The extinction of nearly all the nghts of the mem- 
bers, and the unlimited sway of the preachers have 
already produced a division both in England and the 
United States; which must unavoidably extend, un- 
less the irresponsible aristocracy of the Conferen- 
ces be removed. But notwithstanding this defect; 
to the Methodists is the world ii.debted for the 
grand impetus impressed upon the means adopted by 
the church of God to evan.^ebze marskind. They 
have also used the typographic Avi with great 
sectarian effect ; and it must be re2;retted, that their 
measures tend, even in diffusing iitelligence, to cir- 
cumscribe the boundaries of its extent. More pecu- 
liarly than any other society, the Friends aloi^e ex- 
cepted, have they long fostered a bigoted spirit, 
which is at length beginning to disappear ;, but 
the most curious facts in the history of the founders 
ofthe Methodist Societies are, that while they pro-, 
fessed to subscribe to the truth of the thirty nine 
Articles of the English establishment, they were 
always opposing them in the pulpit ar; by th: press; 
while they professed to believe in the divine right 



#r 



CENTURIES XVI. XVlll. 391 

oi' episcopacy, they became the most alienated Dis- 
senters; and while they proclaimed their fellow- 
ship Tor M '^ who desire to flee from the wrath to 
come," they have organized a sect emphatically dis- 
tinguished ior their dominant proselytism, and their 
indiscriminate opposition to all who will not admit 
that Wesley and Fletcher were infallible oracles. 
This temper iiowever, is gradually meliorating ; and 
in proportion as their ministers of the sanctuary be- 
come iliaminat^Ml, will indubitably be banished from 
among them. They continue to augment in numbers, 
learning and usefulness, and now number in both 
hemispheres upwards of more than half a million of 
members in their churches. 2 

The minor denominations have been nearly included 
in this review — they are either Calvinists or Armi- 
nians ; Trinitarians or Humanitarians ; Pedobaptists, 
or Antipedohaptists; in theology; and Episcopalians, 
Presbyterians or Congregationalists in government 
and disci[)line. One bo Jy might have been noticed 
with more distinctness, the Swede, borgians ; on ac- 
count of their essential differences, but as the reve- 
ries of their Ibunder are rapidly hastening to obliv 
ioii; it was superfluous to revive the remembrance 
of the effusions of delirium, either in the delusions 
of their author, or the unaccountable corresponden- 
ces of his whimsical disciples. 

In thus briefly narrating the principal associations 
of existing Christians ; we are induced to admire 
those wondrous dispensations of divine Providence 
which hasweven made the strife of sectarians conduce 
to the extension of his Gospel, and through the 
restraints of persecution, excited a zeal for the truth, 
with an ampHtude of intelligence and sanctity, which 
has been augmenting with accelerated force during 
the last century, until the soberness of christian 
exertion, has assumed all the noble qualities of cru- 
sading enthusiasm, without the smallest admixture 
oiits desolating evils. 



» 



Z Appendix XXIII. 




3^2 ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. LEdTURE XVI il. 

This review of the characteristics of the modern 
sects should impress upon us one important truth ; 
the absolute necessity of evangelical charity. Among 
tliO Christians, who have attracted our regards, of 
all the principle denominations, which believe the 
*^ truth as it is in Jesus;" we discover the " lights of 
the world, and the salt of the earth." Bigotry, pre- 
judice and error, would seize the hallowed roll in 
which are recorded the names of the departed dig- 
nitaries ; and erase all those who had not pronounc- 
ed their party Shibboleth ; and of course under their 
combined and amplified operation ; scarcely an 
individual, according to human estimate, would 
escape the tremendous blottings, to be honoured as 
a resident in paradise. The present general co- 
operation to reform the world, has demolished the 
barriers which formerly existed to the harmony of 
Christians. One of the most illustrious triumphs of 
gospel philanthropy was lately celebrated. Jay, an 
Independent, preached to the Baptist Missionary 
Society, in a Methodist place of worship in London ; 
thus branding with utter contempt, and dooming to 
the same fire, all the thorns of a sectarian proselyting 
spirit, and all the chafF of bigoted ignorance. 

But when we consider that all the party strife of 
the Missionaries in their own natal soil, is absorbed 
in an overflowing solicitude to enlighten the minds and 
affect the consciences of the benighted Heathen pe- 
rishing in gloom before their eyes ; we are bound to 
rejoice, that the Episcopalian, and the Congrega- 
tionalist, and the Moravian, and the Baptist and the 
Methodist all march in the same ranks, fight under 
the same banners, and remembering the might and 
the number of their idolatrous enemies, almost for- 
get that they ever admitted a sentiment or sensa- 
tion of discord ; only anticipating that glorious period 
when every minor distinction having been removed, 
all the '' righteous shall shine like the sun in the king- 
dom of our Father." May we cultivate that temper 
on earth, and realize this enjoyment in heaven, for 
ever and ever ! Amen. 



CHRISTIANITY IN THE XJNITED STATES. 



The landing of the Puritans at Plymouth, combined 
in its regults, the most important and eventful occur- 
rence in civil or ecclesiastical history, subsequent 
to the Reformation. It is the primary, or in cormec- 
tion with the other republics north of the Potomac, 
the only existing instance of a nation commencing 
theirsocial compact with pure and undefiled religion; 
and animated to the erection of a political edifice 
from their inextinguishable attachment to religious 
freedom. The providence of God, which triumphed 
over the persecutors of his servants, by rendering 
their rage the means of establishing the oppressed 
Puritans in a land which should in future become an 
asylum for the persecuted, demands our grateful a- 
doration. The rapid advancement of the United 
States in the comforts of civilized life, and the ab- 
sence of all exclusive establishments of religion, w^itli 
the attendant prosperity of different communions, 
render this country so inviting to all who are oppress- 
ed for their dissent from a dominant religion, as ei- 
ther to preclude the attempt to re-kindle the flames 
of persecution, or to mock their fury, by snatching 
from their rage, all Who were intended to feed the 
fires. 

The first American colonists were members of a 
society of christians in the north of England, who, in 
the year 1602, entered into a covenant with each o- 
ther to study the scriptures as the only rule of reli- 
gion, and to follow this sacred light, rejecting all hu- 
man inventions, and adopting every institution of the 
divine word. But finding that it was impossible to 
pursue with suCcp'^s io ii--:- -— ■ ^ design 



3^4 ECCLESIASTICAL HIST©RY. LECTURE XIX. 

which was so hateful to the reigning powers, they 
removed to Leyden, in Holland, within about seven 
or eight years after the first formation of their church. 
In this place of voluntary exile they enjoyed great 
privileges and were highly respected ; for the ma- 
gistrates once said to the Walloons, who appeared 
before them for redress against their brethren, "these 
English have lived now ten years among us, and we 
have never had an accusation against any one of 
them, whereas your quarrels are continual." 

But this English church was wounded with the 
manner in which the Sabbath was kept, or rather was 
profaned in Holland, against which they found all 
their remonstrances ineffectual. They perceived also 
that their children were incorporating with the Dutch 
families, or else were drawn away by the evil exam- 
ples of the country. For these reasons they deter- 
mined to pursue their original design of planting a 
scriptural church in the world, by removing to Amer- 
ica. They agreed that the younger part of the so- 
ciety should go first, while Mr. John Robinson, the 
pastor, remained with the elder and major part till 
it was judged proper for them to follow. On a day 
of fasting and prayer, to implore the divine blessing 
on their great undertaking, Mr. Robinson preached 
to them from Ezra viii. 22 : " then I proclaimed a fast 
there, that we might afflict ourselves before our God, 
to seek of him a right way for us and for our little 
ones, and for all our substance." The voyagers then 
took leave of the land which had kindly received them 
" as strangers and sojourners;'' and on July 2, 1620, 
parted with their brethren at Delft haven. Their 
beloved pastor having, like Paul, knelt down on the 
seashore, and poured out his prayers to God fer them, 
they embraced, and wept in each ©ther's arms, till the 
wind and tide compelled them to rend themselves 
asunder, leaving the Dutch, who were spectators of 
the scene, drowned in tears of sympathy. The ves- 
sels which they hired for the voyage, first touched at 
Southampton, to join those who were ceming from 



- 



CBiSTURIES XVI.-^XVUl. 395 

London to accompany them in their expedition. 
They encountered various hardships and dangers on 
the seas ; and instead of arriving at Hudson's river, 
as they intended, they were, by the treacherous 
compact of the captain witli some Dutchmen, who 
wished to reserve that spot for themselves, conduct- 
ed to cape Cod, which however the kind providence 
of God rendered the means of preserving them from 
the Indians by whom they had otherwise been mur- 
dered. 

From the cultivated fields of Europe the first col- 
ony of a hundred persons anived the ninth of No- 
vember, in the year 1 620, on the shores of the vast 
desarts of America, where they beheld a most alarm- 
ing contrast of every thing which had been familiar 
and dear to them in their native country. But they 
had learned, from their pious education, to value the 
pure ordinances of the Gospel as the first blessings on 
earth, and to abhor a fals€ and superstitious religion, 
with impositions on conscience, as the greatest evil 
on thil side of hell. They, therefore, determined to 
endure the miseries of a desart as lighter than the 
moral ills of a depraved society, and to encounter 
the naked savages, whom they less dreaded than the 
cultivated heathens, who, clothed with the robes of 
office, had for years abused the forms of law to deprive 
them of all that was dearest to them in life. The In- 
dians also had been much diminished by sickness be- 
fore the arrival of the colony, so that those who were 
left were less formidable to the English, who, after 
examining the coast, founded, on the twenty-fifth of 
December, in the year 1620, the town of Plymouth, 
of which John Carver was made governor. 

The first settlers endured vast sufferinors from the 
climate, famine, disease, and the hostile neighbour- 
hood of the Indians. But the accelerated course of 
oppression drove across the Atlantic fresh bands of 
emigrants, who sought to share with their brethren 
the quiet enjoyment of civil rights and religious priv- 
ileges. The colony was- much strengthened. In 




390 ECCLESIASTICAL HlStORY. LECTURE XIX, 

one summer fifteen hundred persons landed in the 
new world, many of whom were possessed of such 
property as enabled them to add greatly to the com- 
forts of the new settlement. What language can do 
justice to the delightful affections with which these 
confessors embraced each other at such an immense 
distance from their common country, when to the tie 
of countrymen was added the attachment of fellow- 
christians and fellow-sufferers iii the best of causes ; 
while the one party hailed the arrival of brethren, 
and the other smiled to behold Englishmen and chris- 
tian brethren in the remote desarts which were the 
native haunts of idolatrous Indians? As religion 
was the grand object of their emigration, they first la- 
boured to set up the tabernacle ofGod, and to establish 
that mode of worship and discipline which appeared 
to them exactly conformed to the divine word, and 
calculated to promote the interests of vital religion. 
In a few years many congregational churches were 
formed, jand supplied with pastors. For during 
twelve years of Laud's administration in England, 
persons of all ranks, ministers and their congrega- 
tions^ " kept sometimes dropping, sometimes flocking 
into New England." 

As the original hives were overstocked, fresh 
swarms took flight for other spots, where they built 
new towns and formed additional churches. When, 
however, the English hierarchy was overthrown, the 
causes of emigration were removed, and there were 
not only kw accessions to the colonies, but several 
ministers returned to labour in England. But to such 
extent had the spirit of emigration risen among the 
persecuted puritans, that seventy-seven ministers left 
Great Britain to plant churches in America. In twen- 
ty-seven years from the first plantation of the colonies, 
forty three churches were formed, and in an equal 
number of succeeding years, eighty churches more 
rose into existence. 

But nothing is so permanently pure, in this state, 
that it cannot be deteriorated ; and even the puritans 




qENTURIES 2iVI. XV 111. 397 

who fled from persecution in Europe, could exhibit 
the same spirit in New-England. Whatever mny be 
alleged in favour of some uistances of coercion res- 
pecting the practice of a few of the early Quakers ; 
nothing can justify their persecution of the Friends for 
their principles; and the parties are more censura- 
ble for their hardships displayed to the Baptists ; yet 
these aberrations from the Gospel are absorbed in the 
cruelties exhibited for the punishment of that suppo 
sitious crime, witchcraft. It is but due, however, to 
our departed ancestors, to record llieir humiliation, 
penitence, and bitterness which they subsequently 
avowed lor these outrages. 

After recapitulating those sorrowful events, they 
thus acknowledge their errors and guilt: '^ We do 
therefore signify our deep sense of, and sorrow for, 
our errors in acting on such evidence ; we pray that 
we may be considered candidly and aright, by the 
living sufferers, as being then under the power of a 
strong and general delusion. They asked pardon 
for having brought the guilt of innocent blood on the 
land." 

The grand controversy which agitated the church- 
es of New-England was that respecting the baptism 
of the children of parents not in comm.union with the 
church; which was eventually compromised by the 
" hali-way covenant ;" and to which may probably 
be imputed the alteration of the Puritan character 
from that period, and the admixture of the church 
and the world in all subsequent regulation of purely 
ecclesiastical concerns. With the extension of their 
settlements, an equal enlargement of their churches 
has been realized, so that the Congregationalists con- 
stitute a very large majority of the population of all 
the eastern states; Rhode Is'and alone, in which the 
Baptists are most numerous, forming the only excep- 
tion. 

Maryland was also peopled from religious motives. 
The Irish Roman Catholics who experienced every 
possible ind^nity, fled for refuge to the shores of the 




U' 



39ft Ef^GLESIASTICAL HISTORY. LECTURE XIX. 

Chesapeake ; and there developed the astonishing 
contrast to all the other adherents of the popedom ; 
an aversion from persecution for imputed " heretical 
pravity." 

Pennsjlvania was procured from the British gov- 
ernment by William Penn, and by him transformed 
into an asylum for the Quakers. Civil and religious 
liberty were the corner stones of his government ; 
and there all classes of christians speedily found a 
secure retreat from molestation. The other states 
having been originally occupied by commercial ad- 
venturers, or in consequence of the necessary settle- 
ment of additional lands by the augmenting popula- 
tion, or by emigrants from Europe are not included 
within this review. 

The following summary will exhibit the prominent 
circumstances connected with our ecclesiastical his- 
tory. 

Revivals of the church. — The religion as well as the 
soil of America, has frequently displayed an almost 
miraculous transition from the barrenness of a polar 
winter, to the delights of Paradise. As early as the 
year 1718, the church at Northampton enjoyed a 
considerable revival, under the ministry of Mr. Stod- 
dard, who laboured in the Gospel with such a spirit as 
the Redeemer loves to bless. Three years after, 
such effects attended the preaching of jMr. Whiting, 
at Windham, in Connecticut, that the church kept a 
day of thanksgiving, when a sermon was preached, 
from which it appears, that in six months upwards of 
eighty persons, who had been careless or profane, 
were joined to the church. "The neighbourhood 
rings of it," says the preacher, " while the contiguous 
churches exclaim, what hath God wrought ? But 
why should this spot only be wet with the dew of 
heaven, and the surrounding country remain dry and 
barren ?^^ 

Freehold, in New Jersey, was the scene of another 
remarkable triumph of religion. The gospel had 
been introduced here by Walter Ker, who was driven 







CENTURIES XVL-p-XVllI. 399 

from Scotland, under sentence of perpetual banish- 
ment, by the iron sceptre of James the Second. Af- 
ter a long life of more successful labours, than it is 
probable he vsould ever have enjoyed in his native 
country, he entered into his rest. His charge be- 
came in a few years unhappily notorious for an in- 
decent contempt of religion and morals. Mr. John 
Tennant, a pious youth, having consented to preach 
to them for a season, was so shocked with their im- 
piety, that he told his brother, he repented of having 
engaged to labour among a people whom heaven 
seemed to have abandoned. But the labours of a 
month, produced such a change, that he then said, 
" I would beg my bread to enable me to realize the 
hopes I have formed." Multitudes of both sexes 
confessed with tears their former iniquities; and 
those who remained unchanged, were so ashamed of 
being thrown into a disgraceful minority, that they 
gladly retreated from notice. 

Two years after his death, the town of Northampton 
was distinguished by a most remarkable blessing 
from heaven. The American custom of commen- 
cing the Sabbath on Saturday evening, and ending 
it at six o'clock the following day, was unhappily a- 
bused by devoting the remaining hours to parties of 
pleasure, which completely obliterated the good ef- 
fects of the preceding solemnities. But towards the 
end of the year 1733, the profane, haughty, obstinate, 
spirit of the young, began to be exchanged far a so- 
ber, humble mind, flexible to the voice of religious 
instruction and faithful admonition. They complied 
with the first recommendation of Mr. Edwards, to 
snatch their Sabbath evening from worldly pleasures, 
and devote them to private or social religion. 

A village, about three miles from Northampton, 
first displayed the symptoms of extraordinary solici- 
tude for eternity. The death of a young man and 

Oman, the latter of whom devoted her last moments 
o persuade others to seek the same felicity which 
«he enjoyed, contributed, together with the funeral 



400 ECCLESIASTICAL IlISTOtlY. LECTURE XIX. 

sermons preached on the occasion, to diffuse through 
the younger part of the town a predominant impres- 
sion of religion. The pecuhar and affecting circum- 
stances which attended the death of an elderly per- 
son, produced similar effects on the aged. 

Several remarkable instances of conversion now 
increased and extended the general impression ofreli- 
gion on the inhabitanrs of the town. One young wo- 
man, who had been the principal leader in those 
practices which had before injured the youth apd 
grieved the minister, came to Mr. Edwards to inform 
him of a change, which he was at first averse to be- 
lieve, fearing lest it should serve to encourage others 
in her former sins. His incredulity was, however, 
vanquished by the happy evidences which she gave 
of a divine influence on her heart, and his fears were 
put to shame by the effects produced on the minds of 
others, who, convinced that it was of God, fled to 
seek from him the same mercy. From this time, re- 
ligion, regarded as the one thing needful, became the 
only subject of conversation through the whole town ; 
and business was pursued as a religious duty, though 
in neighbouriug places it was reported that the peo- 
ple of Northampton neglected every thing but their 
souls. Scarcely a person was to be found, old or 
young, rich or poor, who was not deeply concerfied 
for his salvation, while the greatest opposers became 
as serious as those whom they had most deri- 
ded. For several months, each day added to the 
number of the new converts, so that every house was 
filled with joy over a child or a parent^ such as that 
which angels feel over a sinner that repenteth. The 
face of the whole town was changed ; seriousness, 
or benevolent affection and sacred joy, sat on every 
countenance; places of public amusement were a- 
bandoned for the minister's house, where eager in- 
quiries were made concerning the true sources of 
consolation and the discriminating dif^rences of gen- 
uine and false religion. The assemblies of the 
church were crowded with worshippers, whose 



centuril:s avi. — iviii. 401 

praises are said to have been so mneli like those of 
heave.!] and their attention to tlie divine word so 
tremblingly alive, that the most stupid sp<^etator 
would iiave been compelled to exclaim '• how dread- 
ful Is this place, for God is liere, and 1 knew it not; 
surelj tills Is no other than tiie house of God, and the 
gate of heaven." 

By these events, tlie way was prepared for the re- 
ception of Whitfield in America. lie came lO Boston 
in September, 1740, and preached his first sermon to 
two or three thousand persons. The attraction of 
his manner was such, that, though he declared the 
most unwelcome truths, and detected every artifice , 
of the depraved heart, the number of his hearers 
obliged him to preach in the open air. The good 
ministers who had Invited him, saw tlieir most san- 
guine hopes exceeded in the effects of his ministry on 
the hearts of thousands. 

On his departure, an American Whitfield was rai- 
sed up to succeed him Gilbert Tennant came to Bos- 
ton and produced similar eflects by apparently op- 
posite means. With no charms of oratory in lan- 
guage, or in action, but grave and serious as death, 
he thundered and lightened, surrounding the con- 
sciences of sinners with the terrors ol the broken law. 
During the winter of 1740, which he spent In Boston^ 
Mr. Cooper said upwards of six liundred persons 
came to him under concern for their salvation, and 
Mr. Webb declared that more than a thousand came 
to him in the same space of time. William Tennant, 
also, and other ministers itinerated through different 
parts of New England with great success. 

On Whitfield^s second visit to New England, he ex- 
perienced much opposition. Harvard and Yale col- 
leges denounced him. The press teemed with hos- 
tile pamphlets, and ministers formed associations a- 
gainst him. A contemporary ecclesiastical historian 
of America says, however, " Whitefield came with 
an extraordinary spirit of meekness and benevolerice, 
ingenuously acknow-edging the impropriety of some 

.3 C 




402 ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. LECTURE XlX 

of his expressions and censures, but defending his 
conduct by the highest authority and examples. As 
he was invited to preach a lecture at six o'clock in 
the morning he was constantly attended at that ear- 
ly hour by upwards of two thousand hearers." 

A law enacted in Connecticut to prohibit itinerant 
preachers, kindled the flames of persecution ; lor se- 
veral were imprisoned for this new crime, and Mr. 
Samuel Finlay, a minister of the first respectability, 
and afterwards President of Nassau Hall Colle<re» 
was, for preaching to a presbyterian congregation 
at New- Haven, sent out of the colony as a vagrant. 
This infringement on their liberties increased their a- 
version to those ministers who sanctioned the law, 
and induced their hearers to form many separate con- 
gregations. 

In Virginia, the seat of episcopacy, a similar revi- 
val was afforded to the ckurch. A principal instru- 
ment in the work was Davies, afterwards President 
of the same college. Towards the end of theyear 1740, 
a few persons became, by reading the divines of the 
preceding century, exceedingly solicitous for their e- 
ternal welfare. Mr. Samuel Morris, of Hanover co. 
laboured to excite the same solicitude in others, first 
by private conversation, and afterwards by reading 
to the more seriously disposed, Luther on the Gala- 
tians, with some of the works ofBunyan. A young 
gentleman of Scotland, having a volume of sermons 
taken from the lips of Whitefield, at Glasgow^, read 
them at these meetings with such effect, that many 
perceived their guilt and danger, and wept aloud. 
They were now obliged to build a reading house ta 
accommodate the crowds which attended, and were 
soon called upon by the government to declare to 
what denomination of dissenters they belonged. 
They keewnot what answer to give, as they dicj not 
a2;ree with quakers. almost the only sect they krtew; 
til! recollc^cting that Luther's works had first im- 
pressed them, they called themselves Lutherans. As 
soon as their situation was known in the Presbyterian 



M&:.. 






CENTURIES XVI. XVIll. 403 

states, William Robinson was sent to visit the south- 
ern colonies. The new societies were ificxpressibly 
astonished to hear him pour forth from tlie i'ulness of 
his heart, the exact sentiments which tliej had deri- 
ved from books, while they were delighted to find 
that he had in his own experience, a key to the most 
secret emotions of their souls. Mr. Robinson was e- 
qually surprised at the effects produced on the ori- 
ginal societies, as well as on the increasing numbers 
whose curiosity was attracted by the general report ; 
but, after correcting s©me things in (heir worship, and 
introducing prayer as well as singing, he left them 
to a succession of evangelical labourers. 

Alarmed at the indications of a gathering storm, 
and apprehensive of being sent out of the colony, 
they applied, in 1745, to the synod of New York for 
advice and assistance. The assembly sent an ad- 
dress to the governor, by Mr. Tennant and Mr. Fin- 
lay, who were favourably received, aiid contributed 
not ordy to dispel the threatening cloud, but by preach- 
ing and administering the Lord's Supper to increase 
the impressions of religion. Virginia vas at last vis- 
ited by Whitefield, who, though accused of seeking 
popularity in large towns, was hunting for sinners, as 
he termed it, in the woods of the southern colonies. 
At length Mr. Davies, after preaching among them 
for some weeks, was, in 1748, ordained their pastor. 
He encountered much opposition and ridicule, as 
the leader of the new lights ; but saw mauy of the 
opposers first drawn by curiosity, then fixed by at- 
tachment, till fifty new families w^ere added to their 
original number. In seven years after his ordination 
he had three hundred communicants. He preached 
at seven different places, was successful in the con- 
version of many negroes, and saw with del'^ghi the 
same blessings diffused in other parts of Virginia, 
North Carolina, and Maryland. 

So repeated and powerful were the displays of di-, 
vine influence accompanying the Gospel in America, 
during this period, that many believed they saw the 







404 ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. LECTL'RE XIX. 

dawn of the day of final glorj to the church on earth. 
The ciiurch of Christ has scarcely ever seen in any 
couiitry a period of greater prosperity than America 
enjoyed at this time, whether for extraordinary tri- 
umphs of rehgion among thougtUless multitudes, for 
eminence of talents and graces in the hearts of chris- 
tians and divines, or for valuable publications in the 
first departments of sacred literature. 

In latter periods, these revivals of the work of 
grace, have been still more extensive, general, and 
Irequent, in various districts of the Unoin ; and our 
modern religious publications, through redeeming 
mercy, have been for several years past considerably 
occupied with the remarkable details cormected 
wiih the glorious effects of revealed truth, and the 
preaching of the Gospel of Christ throughout our 
land. 

Literature, — No circumstance involves more eulogy 
upon the primitive refugees from European despo- 
tism and persecution, than their early attempts to es- 
tablish a collegiate course of education. Within ten 
years from their first debarkation at Cape Cod ; the 
general court, granted a donation from the public re- 
venue, of 400 pounds, for the erection of a college ; 
which, ifall the circumstances connected with it be 
revievved, was a prodigious sum. Some time after. 
John Harvard, one of the ministers, died, and be- 
queathed iris estate and library for the same object. 
Other public and private benefactions augmented the 
funds, and Theophilus Gale, author of the famous 
work, entitled the court of the Gentiles, presented to 
them his library, an invaluable accession to their lit- 
erary property — thus, in 1640, before twenty years 
had elapsed ; the formerly uncultivated barrens of 
the Atlantic coast, were adorned with a splendid m- 
stitution, which, in connection with the printing-office 
that commenced its operations nearly at the samee- 
ra, like the sun in his progress to the meridian, con- 
tin'.ied to emit with accelerating force the rays of 
iruth, until the triumphs of Puritanism w^ere reverber- 




CENTURIES \VI. XVIH. 405 

ated ill the declaration of Independence. Prior to 
the Revolution several other literary irsj^titulioiiB had 
atlaiited considerable eminence, and had becooie ex- 
tensively uselul. Yale college vi^as founded about 
the commencement of the eighteenth century^ — Wii- 
liani and Mary in Virginia at the same period— Nas- 
sau ilail in 1746 — and Dartmouth in 1769. 

;:>^noas. — These met in New England oti several oc- 
casions , the hrst in 1637, to counteract Antinomian- 
ism , tue second in 1646, which establislied ihc plat- 
form oi church government ; the third in 1657, which 
decided upon the subjects of baptism, and the asso- 
ciation of churches ; and a fourth in 1680, called the 
Reforming Syiiod ; as the object was, if possible, to 
restrain tiie various departures from christian purity 
wniclithe colony deplored. Their efforts were of 
vast iiiiiuence ; and as no ecclesiastical body w^as 
ever collected from nobler motives or for a superior 
desigii, r?o no similar assembly in i\\e annals of the 
churcti, was ever more successful in consummating 
their purpose. It must be subjoined that the estab- 
lished doctrines of the Puritans were Calvinistic, and 
their discipline and order Independent or Congrega- 
tional. As the Synods of the Lutherans, Reformed 
Dutch, and Presbyterian denominations are standing 
bodies, held at stated periods, it is unnecessary to no- 
tice proceedings which are almost invariably uniform. 

Distinctions. — As the principal sects have already 
been described in their prominent characteristics ; 
it is requisite only to display the existing differences 
between the American and European christians of 
the same denomination. 

The Congregaiionalists oi^e'w England, especially 
in Connecticut, differ from the primitive and present 
foreign Independents in one point only ; the consoci- 
ation of churches. This subject affords four points 
of consideration — the Independents of the original 
class allow their ministers to associate for mutual fel- 
lowship, and to devise measures to spread the gospel^ 
but they possess no power in that capacity io interfere 



406 ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. LECTURE XIX. 

in the affairs of the churches, or to authorize candi- 
dates for the rainistrj to preach, or in any measure 
to legislate for the people of their charge; as they 
do not admit of any formal compact of churches. 
The Baptist churches are united in assemblies of 
delegated messengers, but their occasional associa- 
tions have not the smallest portion of ecclesiastical 
authority — the Presbyterians have regularly organi- 
zed bodies composed of every ordained minister, and 
an elder from each congregation, who have a legisla- 
tive authority over all the churches within a certain 
district, v^hetherit be a Presbytery or Synod, or by 
representation in the General Assembly ; these are 
clothed with great ecclesiastical powers — the Meth- 
odise ministers regularly meet in conference, and pos- 
sess unlimited controul over all the concerns of the 
church, but exclude all interference on the part of 
the members in their societies^ — but the Congrega- 
tionalists of New England have adopted a plan which 
is different from either of them ; their churches are 
consociated like the Baptists, but the ministers on- 
ly assemble like the Independents and Methodists ; 
and although they disavow all interference in the 
internal affairs of clmrches, yet they hold the 
right to withhold their communion in case of heresy 
or disorder on the part of any particular church 
by which the fellowship of christians is dissolved. 
To them also is committed the examination and in- 
troduction of candidates to the office of the ministry : 
so that the present system of American Congrega- 
tionalism is neither the perfect democracy of the In- 
dependents and Baptists, nor the aristocratic au- 
thority of the Presbyterians and Methodists: and it 
may be safely assumed, that the Congregational, in- 
cluding the Baptist ecclesiastical order and discip- 
line in their spirit and purity, approximate nearer to 
apostolic and primitive forms than those adopted by 
any other denominations of christians 

The Presbyterian and the Reformed Dutch churches 
adhere to the same standards as their European 




CENTURIES XVI XVIII. 407 

brethren. The former to the Westminster Assem- 
bly's Confession and constitution; the latter to the 
articles and canons of the Synod of Dort. 

The German Lutherans and Cohinists are also in- 
ilexibly attached to their ancient confession and cat- 
echisms and order. 

The Baptists are identical in doctrine and govern- 
ment with their foreign members. 

The Quakers preserve a uniformity and similarity 
of character, tenets and discipline with their British 
Friends. 

The American Methodists continue generally in 
the faith, order, and practice transmitted to them af- 
ter the revolutionary war, by John Wesley : the dif- 
ference between them and the Europeans is merely 
external. In Britain, the conference performs some 
of those duties which are here delegated to the 
Bishops — but the irresponsible power to appoint the 
stations of all the preachers in the connection virtual- 
ly gives to the episcopate, the uncontrouled direction 
of rdl tlie affairs in their church ; the coniierence 
being in fact, where every minister depends upon 
the bishop for his comfort, merely assemblies for 
form, convenience, and friendly intercourse. The 
divisions among the Methodists upon the questions 
connected with government are not of sufficient im- 
portance to demand distinct notice. 

The Episcopalians universally subscribe the same 
doctrinal calvinistic articles ; generally it is believed, 
unite in the Arminian interpretation of them; with 
triiliiig verbal alterations use the same liturgical or- 
der ; a]id are governed by the same canons, as far 
as their varied relations as residents of different 
countries admit. It is difficult to discover ^^::\\ dis- 
crepance except in their external administration. 
The right of patronage in this union being unknown, 
leaves to each congregation the choice of its Rector; 
ai}G the power which in England is vested in the 
king, is here partially exercised by diocesan and 
general conventions. It must therefore be admitted. 




408 ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. LECTURE XiX. 

(hat as all the most corrupt and papistical parts of 
the English episcopacy^, are in these states necessari- 
ly excluded ; the comparative want of increase which 
characterises this denomination, must be imputed 
to other causes, than the truth of their standard ar- 
ticle>s, or the sanctity of some ol their devotional 
ibrois. 

The Papists in the United States are in general 
very exactly assimilated to the European adherents 
of the popedom ; except that they cannot so lucidly 
develope the characteristics of the Apostacy. They 
exhibit the same idolatrous ignorance ai^d almost in- 
curable aversion from the truth ; and possess simi- 
lar malignity and ferocity against all the denomina- 
tions of Protestants. 

The present state of the different sects, — In point of 
numbers, it is understood ; that the Congregational- 
ists combine the largest proportion of members; be- 
tween the Baptists and the various divisions of Pres- 
byterians, including the Reformed Dutch churches, it 
is difficult to decide, as the latter have not minutely 
computed their communicants ; the Methodists fol- 
low, and are separated only by a very small distance. 
Each of these four denominations is in a very flour- 
ishing condition — their increase in every grace and 
good .word and work, and numbers, is incessant — 
they are all zealously employed in propagating the 
knowledge of Christ and Flim crucified, in every ac- 
cessible part of the union, among the Indian tribes, 
and in various countries of the idolaters ; and an in- 
creasing spirit of co-operation in this blessed work 
among these different christians strongly marks the 
present period ; and delightfully prognosticates the 
prosperity of the Republic as well as of the Redeem- 
er's kingdom. 

The society of Friends and the Episcopalians, it 
is believed, if they augment at all, move forward with 
slow progression ; and not from the convictions of 
truth, or the result of exertion ; but merely as a con- 
sequence of the continual rapidity with which oar 
population multiplies and is dispersed. 






CENTURIES XVI XVIII. 409 

Who can remember the prominent events of our 
history without equal astonishment and gratitude ? 
Scarcely 200 years have ehipsed, since the Ameri- 
can wilds furnished a refuge for the persecuted Pu- 
ritans — the spirit of the Reformation then was dyings — 
nevertheless, the Lord inspired the only terrestrial 
band of christians, who completely understood the 
nature of evangelical truth and privileges, and who 
were resolved to adhere to tliem ; to escape into a 
region, where, under his care, '- the little one might 
bc^come a thousand and the small one a stronor nation : 
the Lord has hastened it in his time/' One mode 
exists, by which we may practically exemplify our 
thankfulness to the great governor of the universe — 
an adhesion to our fundamental principles, and the 
adoption of every evangelical and pacific method to 
disseminate them throughout the world. We formal- 
ly deny the rectitude of all religious intolerance and 
persecution, never admit their irruptions — we pro- 
fessedly abominate all offensive wars, never provoke 
national assault — and we declare that all men are 
possessed of inalienable civil immunities, let us cease 
to abrogate the privileges of our citizens! — and as 
the extensive commerce of our Republics in connec- 
tion with the adaptation of our social institutions to 
the condition of all mankind, gives the American 
character an unrivalled influence among foreign na- 
tions; it is our most exalted duty '» to proclaim the 
acceptable year of the Lord," by carrying the light of 
revealed truth, wherever the star-spangled banner is 
unfurled, and by recommending it to all our fellow 
immortals, as the sole chart of our freedom, the grand 
source of our prosperity, the only consolation of man 
in this world, and the effect uni guarantee to all its 
disciples of felicity boundless and everlasting. 

3 D 



RELIGIOUS INSTITUTIONS. 



The first truly missionary labours were the resuU 
of those principles which induced our ancestors to 
migrate from Europe, Elliott the Apostle of the In- 
dians, Mayhew and Brainerd are the pioneers that 
opened 'he path into the wilderness of paganism. A 
few ot lers who ^re renowned in the christian annals 
devo d themselves to this arduous work, among whom 
Swirtz stands pre-eminent; but it is indisputable, 
thai iYith a small number of individual exceplior s, 
until nearly the middle of the last century, the whole 
ProM^stani world was in a state of lethargy respecting 
the x^ension of the church; and exhibited an awfid 
insensibility to the value of the immortal souls of the 
heathen living in gloom, and dying in impenitence and 
sin. 

On the contrary, the age in which we live, is em- 
phatically the era of evangelical philanthropy and 
zeal. Two societies were formed at thf^ commence- 
ment of the eighteenth century to counteract tLe ig- 
nonnce of religion in Great Britain and her territo- 
ries ; but their exertions were feeble and almost in- 
elF^ctuai. The Moravians had combined their la* 
hours in the arduous work, to demolish idolatry ; yet 
ami 1 the desolation produced by sin, even their no- 
ble and successful efforts were almost imperceptible ; 
but \^ ithin the last 40 years an impulse has been 
given to christian energy on behalf of our glorified 
Lord, which it is the acme of corrupt infatuation to 
attempt to oppose. A very brief notice of the asso- 
ciati(xns organized for the purpose of extending " pure 
and und-filpd religion," will form a proper introduc- 
tion to our prospective survey of the church of Christy 
when the Lord shall say, to all '' the prisoners go 





CENTURY XIX. 4 I t 

forth ; and to all them who are in darkness, shew 
yourselves." 

iiovvevcr awful and bitter were the miseries which 
flowed from the Revolution in France in 1789, it is 
undeniable, that it has produced a new era in the 
moral and religious history of mankind. Imposrible 
as it may be for us yet to say precisely, in consequence 
prooaoly, of our defective chronology, to what trcr 
meadous event, 1260 years since, it be^^rs lelation; 
yei II aas excited a large portion of the dormant and 
careioss world to sleepless activity and solicilade. 

in Us results, it has shaken the whole f.blc of the 
Mohammedan Apostacy ; and has so palsied th-? pow- 
er oflne Man of Sin, that in the almost perfect quie- 
tus of his myrmidons, the Monks and the lr)qaisi<ion, 
he has lost if not his will, at least, his potency , so 
that divine truth without a veil may be promiilged in 
" the regions which sat in darkness." Th" European 
concussions through the effervescence of chrisiian 
love, have unexpectedly tended most mightily to pro- 
pagate the Gospel of Christ. From the re^tlese en- 
deavours of the Redeemer's disciples, a decided al- 
teraiion must eventually be displayed in Europe: 
doubtless, the revolution is at a greater distance rhan 
our impatience or desires would place it ; and it 
will be attended with immense difficulties ; but the 
movements of the Protestant world to c ^ji; ter; ct the 
delusions of sin and Satan are now irresis !>• =th- 

out a remarkable change in the affairs of tii< V ks, 
wiiich cannot rationally be anticipated ; the Pelo- 
ponnesus and the Archipelago, especially as th> ty- 
pographical art is now developing itfi mysterio!;;- v/on- 
ders among them, must become Reformed. 11 u oes- 
cendants of the Huguenots are beginniisg to u fold a 
hisrh deofree of that character which, in the sixteenth 
century, rendered them the greatest glory of ihe re- 
formed religion, and the purest church whu h then 
existed in Europe. A larger stream of christian blood 
has been effused in France for the testimony of the 
truth, than in any other country; and howeve' 










412 ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. LECTURE XX* 

tremendous was the retribution thirty years since ; it 
is a subject of great gratitude, that like the fabled 
Phoenix, issuing from its ashes, the 2050 former Pro- 
testant congregations with their faithful ministers, 
have experienced a revival, and are arising from the 
concealment imposed upon them by the revocation 
of the edict of Nantz. 

The seat of the Beast at present, includes the Aus- 
trian dominions, France, Italy, Spain and Portugal ; 
but all the Protestant nations are alive ; and however 
secret and Jesuitical the attempts of the Papal de- 
votees, it is hoped the iniiuence of the gospel will in- 
terrupt their ungodly designs : notwithstanding, it is 
truly remarkable^ that Popery subsists in all its gloom 
and malevolence in its ancient domains, and that it is 
extending its odious leaven among the Protestants, 
especially in Great Britain, so as to excite very se- 
rious and just alarms for tHe pernicious effects. 

The institutions which have been organized to 
promulge the doctrines of the cross of Christ, may be 
generally classified; as Missiona?^ ; Typographical; 
or Education Societies. 

EducafiofL — The Scotch and the Puritans were the 
only people among the ancient Reformed who at- 
tached to the education of youth its superlative im- 
portance ; her^ce their characteristic superiority to 
the rest of the world in morals and illumination 
was the natural effect of their general solicitude lor 
menial culture; their example, however, is now 
very extensively followed. 

In many of the United States, elementary learning 
is the object of legal provision — in Great Britain, 
Ireland and France, the Lancastrian method ~of tui- 
tion is rapidly enlarging its iniiuence; in the Protes- 
tant portion of the continent of Europe, its results are 
commencing to be manifested ; and the instruction of 
the juniors forms a very interesting and prominent 
department of the Missionary's exalted and self-deny- 
ing labours. 




CENTURY >1X. I 413 

If we regard the objects of education in a more 
serious aspect, we instantaneously discover, tliat ihe 
Sunday-Schools combine a most eliicient adjunct to 
the general endeavours for religious improvement. 
Tlie beneficial consequences of this system in dimin- 
ishing the profanation of the Lord's day, in extend- 
ing the knowledge of the sacred volume, and in 
forming the juvenile mind to devotional liabits, ex- 
ceed ail that imagination can grasp; and facts have 
am})ly verified, that the morals of the rising genera- 
tion are in a very important degree inlluenced by . 
their attendance at the Sunday-School* Every en- ; 
largement of this plan to do good will necessarily 
be accompanied with the most delightful advantages, 
until the labours of the Teachers and the studies of 
the Pupils shall all be absorbed in the splendours of 
the latter-day glory. 

Typograpkical — This combines two classes of as- 
sociations ; the dissemination of religious tracts; and 
the Bible societies. The publication of cheap edi- 
tions of valuable religious books, for sale at a very 
low price or for donations to the poor is not of late 
origin; the society for the promotion of religious 
kiiovvledge has existed more than a century; but its 
affairs were never conducted with zeal, or with due 
consideration respecting the actual state of the mass 
of the community. Mr. Wesley with his usual perspi- 
cacity, immediately comprehended the vast influ- 
ence of the type, and attached to his society a spe- 
cial printing and publishing concern; it disseminated 
a prodigious quantity of works at a cheap rate ; and 
deducting for its large proportion of controversial 
divinity, promulged saving knowledge to a wide ex- 
tent, among the most ignorant and thoughtltirss multi- 
tudes in Great Britain. To the religious Tract So- 
cieties we are principally indebted for the grand and 
appropriate use of the press ; they have seized the 
weapon by which infidelity and licentiousness with- 
ered and polluted the human intellect and sensibili- 
ties, and by the immensity and versatility of their 




414 ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. LECTURE XX. 

operations have proclaimed revealed truth in every 
possible form, and suited to all ages, conditions, 
seasons, occasions and circumstances ; so that it 
propagates the light and the heat of the oracles de- 
livered by the Sun of righteousness, in the most un- 
expected and yet resistless manner. Some of the 
most remarkable events in the history of man are in- 
corporated with the mysterious travels of religious 
tracts. 

A delightful feature of the present era is the acce- 
lerating increase of regularly issued religious publi- 
cations, devoted exclusively to theological discus- 
sions and missionary intelligence ; this has transfor- 
med the reading character of the christian world: 
these maintain the truth in all its vivid fieshness, and 
constitute the fuel by which the illumination and the 
fire of an ardent zeal for God, and an inextiiguisha- 
blelove to man are enlivened to continual brightness 
and activity. Thirty years ago, it is believed, but 
two strictly religious magazines were dispersed, the 
Evangelical and Arminian, and those both in Lon- 
don ; ati present it is impossible to enumerate them. 
It is sufficient to remark, that they surpass in num- 
bers all the other merely literary repositories of in- 
telligence, valuable as many of them undoubtedly 
are, and that in this Republic equally with all 
the Protestant countries of Europe, they comprize 
an essential, and in truth, a necessary portion Of the 
daily mental food of every family which realizes a 
due solicitude for the glory of God, the salvation of 
souls, and the amplitude of the church of Christ. 

But these powerful instruments to demolish the 
empire of Satan, are in some measure obliterated ; 
when contrasted with the irresistible atchievments 
of that most mighty invention, the Bible Society. 
Twenty years have not elapsed, since these institu- 
tions, were primarily organized ; and already in the 
variou^ languages spoken by a large majority of 
mankinSL the wonderful works of God, as declared 
in the sabred scriptures, have been translated. Se 



CfCT?^TURY XIX. 415 

stupendous, magnificent and multiplying are the op- 
erations of this immense machine, that it is utterly 
impossible for the pen of the historian to detail its 
unparalielled triumphs, with a celerity equal to ihat 
with which its irruptions into the regions of error, 
infidelity and idolatry are commenced and sustained ; 
to one event aiid that the most splendid in ecclesiasti- 
cal history, the progress of these institutions bears a 
striking analogy, and similar effects have partially 
resulted— the effusion of the Holy Ghost on the day of 
Pentecost; and it may be merely subjoined, not only 
that all the commercial intercourse of nations is now 
indescribably affected by the missionaries of differ- 
ent sects and countries - but also tiiat a person who 
remains ignorant ol the diversified modern reports 
from the Bible agents, and the missionary explorers, 
within the last 30 years, continues wilfully destitute 
of a larger quantity of undeniably correct geographi- 
cal, statistical, and historical information respecting 
our globe and its various inhabitants; than al! the 
w rit MS of travels combined, during the prior eighteen 
centuries, can communicate. 

The principal Bible Societies are the British and 
Foreign — ^the American — the Russian^ — the Nether- 
lands—the Prussian — the Swedish-- the Danish— and 
the Paris Protestant, with their respective auxilaries^ 
but a \(2ry large number of minor institutions are ac- 
tively employed in more contracted circles to dissem- 
inate in their own vernacular languages the word of 
God ; and these are increasing so extensively and rap-^ 
idly, that like the children of Israel when the man af- 
ter God's own heart reigned, we can only pray "now 
may the Lord God add unto this people, how many 
soever they be, a hundred fold, and may our eyes 
see it !" Amen. 

Missionary. — Notwithstandinoall the joyous effects 
which have resulted from the labours of Missionaries, 
it may still emphatically be declared, "the world li- 
eth in wickednesg," Africa, with the exception of a 
small southern district is a land of gross darkness : 



m^m^^m.^ 



4L6 



ECCLESiASTICAL HISTORY. 



LECTURE XX, 



America, the United States and part of the British 
colonies alone excluded, is either immured in Indian 
idolatry or Romish superstition : Asia, except where 
the voluntarily exiled servants of Jesus roam an<i 
preach and teach, is '' Satan's seat, where Satoi 
dwellelh ;" and even of Europe, a large majorit- 
of its inhabitants are apostates with Mohammed, o: 
stamped with " the mark of, the Beast: praj jf 
therefore the Lord of the harvest, that he will sent 
forth labourers into his harvest." The work perfor 
med by Missionaries, according to the present system 
is surely modern. Moravians commenced this ener 
getic warfare against the hosts of darkness, sevent' 
years ago ; in 1787, the Methodists established ; 
mission, which confined its labours chiefly to thi 
British West India islands : and thirty years since* 
the Baptists instituted a society, which when con 
templated in the feebleness of its original means, th( 
gradually augmenting and incalculable benefits i 
has produced, or the astonishing extent of inliuenc- 
in the world, which the Brethren of the mission a 
Serampore have justly attained, we are not onl 
constrained to exclaim, "what hath God wrought ?' 
but are obliged to admit, that viewed in all the cir 
cumstances, no men in modern his^tory have surpas 
sed them in indefatigable exertions, vast learning, 
exalted philanthropy, and that constellation of evan- 
gelical virtues, which have filled the whole christian 
world with their irradiation. 

Nevertheless it must be admitted, that the estab- 
lishment of the London Missionary Society in 1795, 
forms the epocha whence to date that unintermitting 
vigour and quenchless zeal which have subsequently 
characterized, not only the institutions which had 
been previously founded, but also those w hich have 
subsequently been formed. In the very comrnence- 
meivtof that society; its general basis, including all 
sectlvof believers, its imposing patronage, its im- 
menseN funds, its grand objects, and its liberal spirit 
excited a perfect concussion among all them who 




(;i-:xTURV XIX. 417 

loved '• (he Lonl Jesus Christ in sincerity." Its 
nia«;aitiule of numbers, and inimensitj of operations 
soon attracted oessoral attention ; but this was aided 
by (he Evan<j:eiieal Magazine, which, becoming the 
vehicle of all relis;!ons iiielligence ; disseminated 
liie missioiiary spii*ii. nulW a ilarne of devotedness to 
theGod offsraeL in piiblishin!?; (lie knowledge of Jesus 
Christ and hifn cruciiied, has been eiikindled, which 
authorizes live ex|)ectalion that it will never more be 
smothered, mucli less exlingnished. At all evetits, 
now, it w^ould be more practicable to exterminate 
the slumbering fires of eilherof the volcanos with a 
bucket of waler, t!}an to extirpate that temper so 
highly eulogized by the inspired Apostle, " it is good 
to be zealously liffbcLed always in a good tiling." 

Since that period other societies have been con- 
stituted by different denomiiiations: but their do- 
mestic controversial contests are all closed when 
they enter the regions of idolaters : — the watchword 
there is, the Lord or Baal^ and in the momentous 
si rife to rescue immortal souls from present satanic 
bondage, and interminable agony beyond the grave, 
i\\Qy forget sectarianism, and live aiid ^^ fight the good 
light of iaith," as bretin-en. 

The principal exisling societies and stations for 
missionaries, with the publications wdiich record their 
proceedings are comprised in the following catalogue. 
The Church Missionary Society have devoted tlieir 
large funds to proraiilgate the gospel through the 
British dominions in India, the w^estern coast of Af- 
rica, and to the introduclion of Christianity into west- 
evw Asia; combining the expendiiures attached to 
ihe translation and printing of the Bible in various 
languages : they issue a Missionary Register. 

The London Missionary Society occupy many of 
the SouthSea Islands, Caiiraria, MaIacca,Ceylon, and 
Madagascar, with rnnnerous other minor statio^^s in 
llind.ostan. Their Missionary, Dr. Morrison, at C in- 
ton, has completed a most gigantic work, the tran Sta- 
tion of the Bible into the Chinese language, and is al- 

3 E 



# 




413 ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. LECTURE XX. 

SO esiablishing a college at Malacca, to extend the 
knowledge of eastern literature ; and especially to 
institute a seminary where the Chinese converts may 
attain such an acquaintance with revealed theology; 
as eventually to quaUfy them to introduce the gos- 
pel of Jesus, into the inmost recesses of the temples, 
which are dedicated to Satan's earthly representa- 
tives, in that immense region of idolatrous corruption. 
In the islands of the Pacific, the labours of their 
Missionaries, by the divine benediction, have achiev- 
ed the most triumphant display of the grace of the 
Redeemer over the strongholds of Satan, since the 
x\postolic century : their annals are published in the 
Evangelical Magazine. 

The \Vesleyan Missionary Society have employed 
their energies with great success in evangelizing the 
slaves in the West India Islands; but they also have 
stationed missionaries in India, Caffraria, Ceylon and 
in the North American British territories : their pro- 
ceedings are detailed in the Methodist Magazine. 

The Baptist Missionary Society have confined 
their efforts chiefly to British India and Ceylon; 
where Dr. Marshman, by translating the Old and 
New Testaments into the Chinese language, which, 
in connection with Dr. Morrison's publication, is one 
of the most eventful occurrences in the history of the 
translations of the Holy Scriptures, and by printing 
the sacred volume in nearly all the tongues and dia- 
lects spoken by one hundred millions of Hindoos ; by 
the increasing number of their missionary stations; 
and by their education ol native converts as ministers 
of the gospel, they have undoubtedly infused into the 
abominable mass of Brahminical ignorance and cor- 
ruption, a redeeming spirit which at some future pe- 
riod by the effectual operations of the Holy Ghost, 
will develope the most splendid consequences : their 
periodical accounts and the Baptist Magazine fur- 
nish thp details of their success as christians, schol- 
ars and^s^reachers. 

A society has lately been organized by the Protes- 



n 



CENTURY XIX. 419 

tants of France, \vho have selected Palestine for the 
primary fiekl of their labours : and whose strength 
and ardour encourage tfie hcpe, that ere long, they 
wdl march \yith similar brightness and expansion, by 
the side of their European and Columbian associates ; 
they have also commenced a publication for mission- 
arv intellioence. 

These constitute the priiicipal foreign societies, 
including their auxiliary associations ; in (he United 
States five societies exist for the suixic august object. 

The American Board of Foreign niissiorjs Avas in- 
stituted about 10 years since, and already have assu- 
med a very distinguished station amoi)g these evan- 
SCelical labourers. Palestine, the British dominions 
in Asia, the Sandwich Islands, and our aboriginal In- 
dians participate in the benefits of their philanthro- 
py. Among tlie latter especially, their progress has 
been highly important and exh.ihirating : and they are 
gradually augmenting in all t!ie capacities to melio- 
late mankind. It is not a litile extraordinary, that 
the citizens of these states, the soil of wiiieh was not 
cultivated until nearly 1600 years after liie Saviour's 
resurrection, should rank anioiig the first Protestant 
christians, to attempt the restoration of Messiah's 
honours in that land, where his godlike wonders were 
displayed ; and to explore the scenery of Jodea, 
where " Jesus of Nazareth went about doing good." 
Probably, the most lucid and devotionally affecting 
description of Palestine from Joppa to the river Jor- 
dan, and the most accurate and impressive delinea- 
tion of the present state of the seven churches of Asia 
have been furnished by Mr. Parsons lately disem.bod- 
ied and removed to the New Jerusalem, and Mr. Fisk 
their honored Missionaries. The expenses of this 
Board are contributed chielly by the Congrep-atior^- 
alists; they publisii ihe Missiooary Iierah], 

The Baptist Board ofForeigri Mi^^fion^.i-i add/'iofi 
to 8;reat exertions to extend ihe gospri aino/'ir ^Ue 
tribes of Heat!:5en iiidians on the borders of iiie rle- 
public, have mainiaM^5Ml a mission in the Bunmiu em- 




*» 



^^ 






420 



ECCLESIASTICAL lilSTUlLV 



LKCTl'FE XX, 



of the ^.'^crir/tores mid 



pire ; where the translation 
the operations ofthc press hove hcxn preparinj/; tire 
waj for a large harvest hi the Lord's appointed time : 
tiiey issue the Latter-doy Linninary. 

The United Foreign rJissionary Society, compo- 
sed of the Presbyterian nud Dutch Reibrmed denom- 
inations, have as yet, coniined tiieir attentiori to the 
Indian tribes around us; tliev occupy live .missionnry 



iOine 



stations, and are \evy rapidly extending their 
etibrts : ihey print the Alissionary Register. 

The Methodists have also lately establibhed a 
general society for tiie purpose of diirusing the 
knowledge of the Redeemer among the Fleathen ; 
and its labours are commencing with their character- 
istic earnestness and zeal. 

A very interesting institution has been organized 
in this union, which, if properly conducted, may be 
very influentialin improving the condition of the AJ- 
rican desarts; the colonizalio}i society. Although not 
expressly founded for religious purposes ; yet popu- 
lar opinion has combined so much cliristian feeling 
with its adoption and plans, that under the auspices 
of the Baptist Board of Foreign Missions particular- 
ly, the most influential of the tirst emigraiits arc de- 
cidedly believers in Jesus, and all the measures whiclj 
the society has adopted tend to (he predominance oi 
gospelprinciples, as the corner stone of the settle- 
ment. Should the colony enlarge like the Puritan 
districts of New England, in its pious characteristics 
as well as temporal prosperity ; it may then in some 
measure be instrumental to commute by the donation 
of the Gospel and its blessings, ibr the numbeiless 
and indescribable miseries which through the slave 
trade, the sons of Africa have suifered from the c?^77- 
zW nations of Europe and America. 

christian spectator, who' correctly reflects, 
\vbil\ enumerating this catalogue of evaiigeiical in- 
siitutib^ns, cannot avoid acknowledging with grati- 
tude th^connection between them, and the most in- 
fluential\haracteristic of the present period; that 



d^'^h 



CEx\TURY XIX. 421 

iieaturo v;hic:h uiifokls a strikinfi; contrast ^vills oriie- 
rior ages oi' iiie^chur«h, even since tlie Rerorrno'-ior; ; 
the goi'.era! dKrusion of the spirit of grace arKf srijjpli- 
catii)n ior the lullilmerrt oiall those wonder? whi-rli 
propheej declares shaU at some future era Ise dis- 
])laye(K uhen ^' thej shall fear the n^tiie of the Lord 
from f he west, and his ghary from the rising oithe stui/" 
Tlie nionthl^y meeting devoted expressly to prayers 
iur tlie unction from the Holy One to descend npon 
the church of God ; upon the instructions of m'fssiorr- 
aries and pastors ; and upon the iliuminatior] convey- 
ed by Bibles and Tracts ; and for a larger e: perience 
inid manifestation of the divine faithfuhiess in the con- 
summation of the Redeemer's promises and in pro- 
pitious answers to the ardent petitions with which 
'- the throne of grace" is incessantly beseiged, con- 
stitutes a remarkable and an infallible precursor, of 
the approaching day of the Lord ; for it is like the 
voice of him of old crying in the wilderness, "make 
straight in the desart a hio-hway for our God; everv 
valley shall be exalted, and exery mountain and iiill 
shall be made low; and the crooked shall be made 
straight, and the rough places plain ; arul Zuir and 
Jerusalem that being good tidings shall lift up their 
voices with strength and shall not be afraid ; and 
shall say unto the cities of Judah, Behold your God !", 
One unexpected effect has been adduced by the 
progression of the principles upon which the Puri- 
tans originally separated trom the ancient and mod- 
ern hierarchs. x\ll the attempts to investigate many- 
portions of our globe, either through commercial cu- 
pidity, or by military force have been totally unavail- 
ing ; but we are at present as intimately acquainted 
with many of the diversified tribes of men through the 
missionary researches, as if w^e had personally in- 
spected, their unsocial habits, and their irrelio-icos 
principles; for it appears that God has prepared a 
way for these " sons of peace'' where others ia vain 
have attempted to explore; thus overthrowing a very 
specious objection which sceptiscism has piieged to 



422 ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. LECTURE XX. 

the scriptures, that they contain a system not only of 
error, but of ignorance. . 

Infidels have ever affirmed, as an oracular truth, 
that by the propagation of the Gospel, the civil con- 
dition of the human family would not be meliorated ; 
while lukewarm and formal professors of Christianity, 
have also asserted, that the sole mode to evangelize 
manliind, was by their previous civilization and as no 
momentous facts, could be adduced against the the- 
ory ; the enemies of the cross of Christ exulted in the 
assurance that the Gospel would not become the 
faith of the whole world. This deception is forever 
entombed ; as no position is now more self evident, 
than that which affirms, the indispensable necessity of 
divine revelation to deliver men from ignorance and 
brutal degradation, and to elevate them to the grade, 
sensibilities and character of rational creatures. 

The Puritans originally and all the revered mis- 
sionaries who nowpromulge " the glorious gospel of 
the ever blessed God," have consequently most en- 
tirely demolished by a practical argument, which the 
Defenders of the Faith have never duly illustrated 
and enforced, the deistical assault upon the sacred 
scriptures, that it is a system of superstitious gloom 
generating only human deterioration, for they have 
developed, that the anxiety and exertions to extend 
the arts and sciences, with all the blessings of civili- 
zation, are exactly proportioned to unfeigned zeal in 
the service of the Redeemer; hence, philanthropy 
prays, that our modern missionary efforts may be am- 
plified to an indefinite extent, and be impelled by a 
strong impetus. In reference to this subject, the 
spread of the Gospel, as the only means to disseminate 
knowledge, harmony, comfort, morality, and civil and 
religious Hberty throughout our globe; every chris- 
tian will unite his heart and voice in this hallowed 
petiHpn to the Father of light, and Lord of peace 
and tr\ih and law. 

God speed the Press, in this most holy cause, 
Till every Pagan's son shall be supplied ; 




CENTURY XIX. 423 

Obedience learn to Jesus' laws, 

And from his word of grace be satisfied ! 

God speed the holy men whose every power 

Is exercised in this divine employ ; 

And ofrant their prospects, brightening every hour, 

Ma) fill their hearts with enviable joy ! 

God speed the cause of missions through the world ! 
Still may it chrer its friends, convince its foes ; 
Be every idol from its altar hurPd; 
May every desert blossom as the rose ! — Amen. 




THE M!:LLENiU]\ 



Faith exults in the expansive prospects of Chris- 
tianity. So ofteit, and so accurately have divine pre- 
dictions already been consummated in their most 
minute circumstance, that no believer hesitates res- 
pecting the unalterable certainly of the final accom- 
plishment of those still more splendid events which 
are connected with the universal triumphs of the gos- 
pel, that in futurity shall constitute the latter-day 
glory. All the nieans of communicating knowledge, 
that the Scriptures contain, are to represent the 
prominent characteristics of that auspicious period in 
the history of our world. Types, parables, commands, 
and promises united their force to depict a spiritual, 
sublime and felicitous state of mankind, even on this 
terrestrial globe, of which it may be affirmed in A- 
postolic language, " eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, 
neither have entered into the heart of man, the things 
which God hath prepared for them that love him." 

Nothing is more easy than for the ingenuity of cor- 
ruption to ask questions, involving ditliculties of 
boundless magnitude, and inextricably perplexing. 
Sceptical cavillers frequently inquire, Why was si[i 
admitted into Paradise ? Why have the nations of 
the earth been immured so long in idolatrous deprav 
ity ? Why has one portion of the world received 
th^ gospel in preference to another ? Why has man- 
kind during nearly 6000 years remained in a night 
of gross mental and moral darkness; and why shall 
tHe inhabitants of the seventh millenial revolution of 
tiiive enjoy a day of unremitting religious illumination.^ 
My Xads of questions like these may be propounded ; 
and ovie reply alone can be given by a creature who 
is a compound of fallibility and ignorance; but that 




1DHE MILLENNIUM. 425 

answer is iii the language of him of whom it is writ- 
ten, "never man spake like this man" — ^^even so, 
Father, lor so it seemed good in thy sight." The 
mjsteriousness of Jehovah's dispensrttions should 
teach us awe and reverence ; while the conviction 
that the declarations of" God are truth, should inspire 
us with confidence in him who has graciously assur- 
ed his followers, that in a paradisaical sense, it 
shall ere long be proclaimed, '^behold the taberna- 
cle of God is with men, and he will dwell with them^ 
and ihey shall be his people, and God himself shall 
be with them, and be their God." 

The predictions concerning the church which ap- 
jpear to have been fulfilled, have been examined ; 
and we have surveyed the present condition of the 
Redeemer's terrestrial kingdom ; our contemplations^ 
therefore, are confined to only one additional inquiry, 
what are the future prospects of the believer in refer- 
ence to the glory oi Immanuel ? 

All christians admit, that in the sacred books, God 
has revealed to us, through prophecy, an accurate 
description of the christian church, from the morniiig 
when •' the Holy Ghost was first sent down, from 
heaven" until the last " trumpet shall sound ;" and 
it i^ equally undeniable, that three different periods 
or states oftlie church are distinctly etiUmerated. 

Of these eras, the first comprizing Christianity in 
its progress, until Constantine subverted the Heathen 
predominance, has elapsed, and its history we have 
perused — the second extends through the nges of 
darkness^ corruption, and apostacy, and with its pro- 
perties we are experimentally acquainted, for it exists 
^-and the third presents a maT;nificent display of pa- 
rity, intelligence, and prosperity, described in fiijures, 
combining all natural, paradisaical, and heavenly 
beauty, spirituality and enjoyment ; extensive as the 
i'dimXy of Adam, and perennial during the revolution 
of a thousand years. But this last is future; for 
the predictions of Scripture with respect to {hf" over- 
throw of all the Anti-christiau systems as they are 

3 F 



426 ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. LECTURE XXI. 

, recorded in the apocalypse, from chapter 14: 14, to 

|l 20 : 3 ; obviously remain unfulfiled ; and every endea- 

' vour to apply part of them to any events posterior to 

the Reformation has been decidedly futile. An ex- 
position of the following topics will therefore termi- 
nate our discussion. 

The commencement and duration of the Millennium — E^ 
vents anterior to the JMillennium — The characteristics of 
the JMillenninin, 

(L When ivill the Millennium commence ; and how long 
will it continue ?> — In the Apocalypse, 20: 1 — 6; John 
replies to these questions; but our ignorance of the 
precise period, when Daniel and John's prophetic 
periods begin, renders all attempts to attain per- 
fect exactitude nugatory. That Daniel's 2300 days, 
when *■' the sanctuary shall be cleansed ;" and his 
1290 days, and 1335 days, and John's 42 months and 
1260 days ; and '•'-. the time, times, and half a time" 
of both the Prophets refer to the same periods can- 
not be doubted. It is evident, that those expositor* 
are incorrect, who fixed the commencement of the 
1260 years in 476, when the Roman empire was sub- 
verted ; because the period to w hich this calculation 
conducts us has elapsed nearly 100 years, and An- 
ti-Christ still retains his supremacy. They who des- 
ignate the year 606, when Boniface received the ti- 
tle of Universal Bishop and Pope, seem to err in also 
antedating the epocha -• ifany year can be presumed 
to mark the course of the Mohammedan delusion, it 
must be the Hegira, but that is sixteen years later 
than the above era ; and it must also be remember- 
ed, that, the witnesses' prophesying in sackcloth, did 
not commence in the eastern empire, until after 
Mohammed's success over the Arabians enabled him 
to extend his warlike conquests to the neighbouring 
covintries ; and certainly the witnesses did not appear 
among '-'- the ten horns of the Beast" until 40 years 
afterXhe military desolations of Apollyon's scorpion- 
locusts. Besides, if this calculation be correct, 4$ 
years only remain anterior to the demolition of all 




\ 



THE MILLENNIUM. 427 

that is opposed to the cross of christ ; which renders 
the conversion of nearly 20 millions of people annual- 
ly necessary — but where are tlie instruments, either 
Bibles or Missionaries, prepared for this august em- 
ployment? The last specified date, about 750 is 
founded upon the fact, that then tlie Pope was con- 
stituted a temporal Potentate — but it must be recol- 
lected, that the " Man of Sin, the son of perdition," 
is not branded with inffimy, and pronounced accursed 
because he ruled a small portion of Italy in vassalage, 
but on account of his spiritual prerogatives, and his 
usurpations in the temple and throjje of God ; which 
indubitably were consolidated about tlie year 666. 
The grand objection to those periods is that they de- 
stroy the distinction which Daniel marks in the 30, 
and the 45 years after the 1260 years have expired. 
It has been a tradition coeval almost with Christian- 
ity, that at the end of 2000 years, the Lord Je- 
sus Christ would unfold the period revealed by John 
in the passage already quoted; and if we reckon the 
Hegira in the eastern empire, and in the papal do- 
minions, the number 666 as the commencement of the 
126© years we preserve the order of the prophecy, 
and exactly evolve the distinctive features of the a- 
pocalyptical visions. In chapter 16, of the Revela- 
tions, five angels in succession effused their vials up- 
on various parts of the Roman empire, denominated 
the earth ; the application of these prophecies in 
spite of all modern ingenuity, cannot be discovered. 
The purport of the sixth seems more obvious; as the 
great river Euphrates assuredly implied the Turks 
in chapter 9 : 14, so in chapter 16 : 12, it must be 
similarly expounded — but if this be correct then the 
demolition of the Mohammedan government over the 
eastern part of the empire is distinctly proclaimed, 
and even the manner of its dissolution pointedlv de- 
clared ; that the power of the serpent horsemen 
shall gradually die not from external assaait . but 
inerely from internal convulsions, until it shall be 
withered in perfect impoipnce. Does not the mod- 




il 



l^lt 



428 



ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY, 



LECTURE XXI, 



ern, and especially the present prospective condi- 
tion of that apostate despotism forcibly corroborate 
this interpretation ? This would transfer us to a pe- 
riod about the year 1882, before all the obstructions 
to the progress of the Gospel and the return of the 
Jews to their own land shall be effectually extirpa- 
ted. After this period will follow the commotions 
under the seventh vial, then will succeed the slaying 
oi the witnesses; the public regular profession and 
preaching of the true Gospel throughout the JO horns 
of the beast will totally cease; in which persecutions^ 
ail those modes of despoiling them of life will be a- 
dopted, by which their bodies will be deprived of 
interment; and so complete will be the apparent ex- 
termination of the good seed, and of those who had 
imbibed it, that during three years and a half, all the 
governments civil and ecclesiastical will rejoice at the 
victory by which they silenced the witnesses, whose 
prophesying '•* tormented them" in their sins. This 
event will happen at the expiration of 1260 years 
from the beginning of their testimony : and the death 
of the two olive-trees indispensably demands, the 
general suppression of the Protestants against the 
Latin church, the manifest, undeniable, and triumph- 
ant congratulations of those who hate genuine Chris- 
tianity over its supposed ruin, and the almost imme- 
diate and sudden resurrection of the witnesses. 

Immediately consequent to the resuscitation of the 
witnesses, at the same hour, wiU be the great earth- 
qu ike of one of the ten horns; for the ^' seventh vial 
shall be poured out into the air and the voice shall 
cry, it is done ;" '* the tenth part of the city shall fall, 
7i)00 men shall be slain, and the remnant shall be af- 
frighted and give glory to the God of Heaven;" it is 
*' a g;reat earthquake, such as was not since men were 
upon the earth, so mighty an earthquake and sogreat." 
THe earliest appearance of the \Vaidenses being 
abnutXhe year 666, the commencement of the wit- 
nesses hfophesyins: must be referred to that period ,• 
whenceVb;^ the addition of the 12(>0years,we calculate 




THE MILLENNIUM. 429 

their death near the year 1926 : after which threeyears 
and a half" will elapse for their apparent extinction, 
and the earthquake shall separate forever one of the 
ten horns from the empire of the beast. 

Ahnost immediately after tliis event ; " the cities 
of the nations fall ;" the former Protestants will again 
secede from the beast and leave to Rome three princi- 
pal sovereignties into which the great city shall be di- 
vided ; and a storm of hail, some northern irruption, 
shall so torment and plague men, that they will blas- 
pheme God {'or the anguish which it generates. 

Tiie earthquake is previous to the sounding of the 
seventh trumpet ; for the Apostle having seen the ef- 
fects oi that convulsion, declares that " the second wo 
is past, and behold the third wo cometh quickly :" 
which implies that a short period only will intervene 
between those occurrences ; and that the various 
changes that will succeed, shall transpire with over- 
whelming rapidity. WiUtheblast of thethree wo-trumpets 
he eq li'distant ? The fifth tpum pet was blown about 
the year 622; the sixth about 650 years after; and 
the same intercedent space of time, points us to a date, 
sufficient to admit the temporary death of the wit- 
nesses, the earthquake of the tenth part of the city, 
and the final and complete organization of that horn 
upon evangelical principles. 

The seventh angel sounds; and great voices in 
heaven, the multitudes of revived Protestants shout 
the gloriously triumphant song, ^' the kingdoms of 
this world are become the kingdom of our Lord and 
of his Christ, and he shall reign forever and ever.*" 
Then the Apostle was called to behold the judgment 
upon Babyloi. Those of the ten kingdoms w hich 
separate from her will begin to '• eat her flesh and 
burn her with fire," will totally despoil her of her re- 
sources and punish her with famine and war. 

After the resurrection of the witnesses, the gospel 
will begin to spread during the remainder of the 30 
years, previous to the final battle, with unexampled 
celerity ; a multitude of the Jews will ieel its power; 




430 ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. LECTURE XXI. 

a desire to return to the land of their ancestors will 
animate them; and by the removal of the Turkish 
government, the way will apear* unobstructed. In 
this design, all the witnesses will co-operate. They 
who are impelled by" the frogs, the three unclean spi- 
rits" of devils and of the Mohammedan and Papal a- 
postacies, " with the beast, the false prophet, and the 
kings of the earth," will combine against the Lord 
and his annointed, oppose the saint's progress, and 
coalesce to exterminate those whom the Anti-chris- 
tian conspirators denounce as Heretics. This mea- 
sure will eventually introduce the concluding and de- 
cisive battle ; when the enemies of Christ '•shall be 
thrown down and found no more at all ;" and it will 
be truly a war for religion, between the servants of 
their Lord, for the preservation of their faith and 
hope, and the agents of hell, irrecoverably to destroy 
Christianity. 

The scene of this conflict will probably be in Judea, 
where the christians and their allied Jewish converts 
shall be met by the Apostates and Pagans ; and 
when the former shall be reduced to the utmost ex- 
tremity, the "Word of God, whose name is King of 
Kings, and Lord of Lords," shall appear in a person- 
al manifestation ; by him the combat shall be deter- 
mined, and there he shall " make the supper of the 
great God." The immediate result of the conquest 
will be the settlement of the already converted Jews 
in their own Canaan ,- the excision of the Latin empire 
in church and state; and the restoration of the out- 
casts of Israel, from the various places of their ban- 
ishment, triumphing in the doctrines of the cross. 

This infallible demonstration of divine truth, in 
connection with the extraordinary means which shall 
be adopted without opposition to disseminate the 
" glorious gospel of the blessed God," and which shall 
be accompanied with the effusion of the spirit of grace 
and stipplication among the saints, and the constant 
benediction of heaven, in the space of the 45 years 
ensuing, shall transform the moral character of man- 




THE MLLLENNIUM. 431 

kind ; and regenerate the human family from the least 
to the greatest. " Every nation shall see the salva- 
tion of our God ; the glory of the Lord shall be re- 
vealed, and all flesh shall see it together ; the Son 
shall have the heathen for his inheritance; the whole 
earth shall be filled with his glory;" the millennial 
era shall commence ; and the innumerable hosts of 
the redeemed in heaven and on earth shall unanim- 
ously shout in the most fervid praise, " Hallelujah, 
the Lord God Omnipotent reignetti." Amen. 

Of this glorious state, John says expressly, that it 
shall continue a thousand years ; and there is no 
plausible argument offered, why the period should 
be proloriged by supposing that each year may be 
calculated as a year of days, so as to make the num- 
ber 365,000. Besides, if the analogy be admitted, 
that the six days of creation typified the 6000 years 
of the world prior to the latter-day glory, and the 
succeeding Sabbath prefigured the millennial rest ; 
then the coincidences between all the dispensations 
of God to the human family, will combine for those 
sons of illumination and peace, who shall dwell in 
that universal world of christians, a ceaseless source 
of certitude, devption, and triumph. 

//, The means by which the Millennium will be introduced, 
— From the uncertain speculations of" times and sea- 
sons," we transfer our attention to subjects which are 
more obvious and sure. " The grand instrument to 
change the moral world is dimne truth.'''* To this the 
nations were originally indebted for their conversion 
from pagan idolatry ; by it the Reformation was a- 
chieved, and the Protestants "emerged from the dark 
antichristian abyss;" and through its operation, " ac- 
companied with the powerful energy of the Holj 
Spirit, will the Millennium, in all its glories be usher- 
ed into existence." In two methods, is divine truth 
communicated to the soul of man, by the preachings 
of the gospel and the perusal of the sacred oracles; 
and both 'hese means will be adopted commensurate 
to the graudeur and extent of the objects Many will 



432 ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. LECTURE XXL 

arise, like Knox and Whitfield, who by the blessing of 
God upon their labours, called thousands by their 
preaching'-* from darkness to light, and from the pow- 
er of Satan unto God" — and when the scriptures shall 
have been translated into all languages and distrib- 
uted into every habitation, what wondrous effects 
may not be anticipated from the combined efforts of 
the Pulpit and the Press, the Bible and its Missiona- 
ry expositor ! — In addition to these mightier exer- 
tions, the sacred oracles authorize the anticipation, 
that a vast increase will be realized from the efforts 
of all classes of christians ; parents and masters of 
households ; instructors of youth ; and the govern- 
ments of the world. 1. 

These means will doubtless be employed by " the 
household of faith" to introduce that august day, 
when the glory of the Lord shall cover the whole 
earth, for "■ many will run to and fro, and knowledge 
be increased ;" but prophecy also distinctly declares, 
that the immediate power of God will be exerted to 
overthro V all opposition to the gospel of Jesus, and 
to develope the way for its universal reception. A 
correct understanding ot the past and present situa- 
tion of the nations of the earth induces us to conclude, 
that nothing less than the almost preternatural con- 
vulsions enumerated in the highly figurative language 
of prophecy, could prepare the nations for the trans- 
formation which will be exemplified during the Mil- 
lennium. 

Almost the whole earth is now immersed in a pro- 
found ignorance of evangelical truth — even of the 
majority of nominal christian countries, error and su- 
perstition in principle, and vitiosity in practice, are 
the predominant characteristics ; — and ambitious of- 
fensive wars, with the vilest general oppressions of 
the people, constitute their prominent features — and 
in every nation on the globe, with partial exceptions, 
the co\isciences of the inhabitants are imprisoned 
by their despots' faith, and all freedom of divine 

1. Appendix XXIV, I 




THfc: MILLKINNIL'M. 



43# 



^l-orsiiip and teiigious opinion is utterly discarded 
and reiiispd.2. To exteriniiiate this moral desolation 
- — war with rts concomiiants, i'amiiie and pestilence, 
in liieir ordiiiarj devastations, aggiandized probably 
by the removal of" the restraints, which Jehovah has 
so often iinpoaed upon l,l)c ferocity and ambition of 
the sane:uinarv pieleiided leoitimates who rule the 
nations, may elFcci the successive overthrow^ of the 
tyrants; and imnuire tiiose e.^alted enemies of God 
and man in the same ind'fscriminate ruin. Hence, the 
vicious will disa|)pear ; good men will be exalted to 
dignity and power, social institutions will be meliora- 
ted, and the rights of conscience, with the inalienable 
privileges ofcivil freedom will be universally diffused. 

Many other grand events must precede the final 
establishment of the Millemiium. The Protestant 
churches will display more purity, energy, and zeal— - 
for all indifference to truth, erroneous sentiments, 
carnal nisensibility, worldly attachments, incorpora- 
tion with the civil governnients, and religious restric- 
tions must be totally banished; while the indefinite 
eifusion of the inlluences of the Holy Ghost, will ex- 
cite numberless labourers and general co-operation 
to disseminate the knowledge of " Christ and Him 
crucified.'' Hence, wilt necessarily follow, the des- 
truction of the Koran, the annihilatiop of infidelity, 
the extermination of x4ntr-CiJi'ist, the submission of the 
Jews to the Messiah, and the conversion of the Hea- 
then nations to the faith aird hope of the Gospel. 
How vast the importance, and how immrense the ex- 
tent of that w ork, which is yet to be performed, ante-= 
rior to that morning, when '' all tlie ends of the earth 
siiall see tbe salvation of God P' 

ill. The characteristics of the Millennium, — The fig-, 
ures used in Scripture to depict tlie blessedness of 
the period under consideration,, so energetically un- 
told a state of 6omfort and enjoyment hitherto un- 
known on earth, since the primeval curse was denoun- 
ced ; that it is difficult to form any idea of the beai# 

2^. .4ppenilix XXV. 




431 ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. LECTURE XXL 

teoas scene, except probably as it may have been 
partially prefigured in Palestine during the earlier 
years of ihe reign of Solomon. 

Notwithstanding all the difference of opinion res- 
pecting the nature and extent of the Millennial pros- 
perity, the predictions of divine truth certainly au- 
thorize the b.dief, that an ineflably superior degree of 
providential and spiritual mercies and delights, to that 
which is at preseiU known, will then be realized. 

Proindeih'iid acquisitions, — These will comprise an 
incalculable enlargement of the number of the human 
family — and a boundless distribulion of all the richer 
benefactions peculiar to this mortal state. The lar- 
ger portion oi our habitable world is probably an un- 
cultivated desart, and even of that which is most nu- 
merously peopled, its capacities to furnish food are 
but imperfectly know n. On this topic it is utterly im- 
possible to coislruct any plausible arithmetical table 
— o le fact in the Jewish liistory overwhelms all our 
imaginations. After the division of the twelve tribes 
into two kii\gloms. Judah and Benjamin which com- 
prised a space prob bly of not more than 1500 square 
miles, mustered duiingthe reign of Jehoshaphat, one 
million one hundred and sixty thousand men "ready 
prepared lor war, beside those whom the king nut in 
the fenced cilies throughout all Judah." The lar- 
gest capacity aiid powers of computation are lost in 
the imm'^nsiiy which results from adapting this ru- 
merical illustraTion to the landed surface of the globe ; 
especial! V when it is remen;bered that this mighty 
force was ronti::a illy stationed in Jerusalem, merely 
as sup^^r^'umei-r^ri' s lo tJl (he garrisons with which 
the borders of =he laud were regularly guarded- It 
is admitted, th?ii the provisions adeqfiate to their 
support werp the consequence of a fertility espe ciaU 
ly bestovved by God, but this is also a peculiar portion 
ofthediviip promise attached to the universal spiri- 
turd rei^rn of L'-us over the world '^in the last days.'' 
John b '' ' 'lem who enjoyed the final trium}>h 
of christiar ' ^^ over all the enemies of Jesus and his 
church, and decisires, that they were " a great multi- 



TIIK ]MILLF-NNIUM. 435 

iuile, which no man could number" — and still more 
impressively to describe them, he adds, that when 
tlieysung the sublime and extalic chorus, "Alleluia, 
for the Lord God Omnipotent reii^neth," itM'as ''as 
the voice of many waters, and as ih? voice of mighty 
thunderings." May it not therefore be believed, that 
when the iinal judgment shall iiave irrevocably de- 
termined the destinies of all matikind, that the pro- 
portion of the lost to the redeemed, will be similar to 
that which exisis between the good members of so- 
ciety and crinnnals, or those who enjoy the exercise 
of reason and lunatics? 

Many characters given of tiie Millennium in pro- 
phecy, develope the sources whence this extraordina- 
ry population sh:ill be supplied, and by which they 
shall be consoled. '' Then shall the earth yield her 
increase." This seems to declare tliat sterility of soil, 
blasting seasons, and unpropitious climates shrdl be 
unknown ; so that unexampled fertility and pleasant- 
ness will be experiencetl. " There shall be a hand- 
ful of corn in tlie eartli upon the top of the mountains ; 
the fruit thereof shall shake like Ijcbanon; and they 
of the city sha 1 ilonrish likegra^s ol'the earth — the 
mountains shall drop down new Avine, and the hills 
shall flow with milk— tlie wilderness and the solitary 
place shall be glad, and the desart shall rejoice and 
blossom as the rose ; it shall blossom abundantly, and 
rejoice even with joy and singing,'' No language can 
possibly be more descriptive either ofthe exuberance 
and universality of all the comforts necessary for mor- 
tal existence : or of th.e immense multitudes who 
shall participate in tliese divine benedictions ; for 
who can measure the crop of the vallies if the rock of 
the mountain is fat and verdant '.vilh grain as prover- 
bial Lebanon — who can enumerate the crowds of 
christian immortals when the ai'^^^ss of the earth is 
theirinspired similitude- — who can delineate the beat- 
itudes of that world wh'^r? ilie present sterile desart 
shall be as a garden of^'oses, and ih-Q now uninhabi- 
ted wilderness shall abunJaji'Jv resound with the tri- 



■136 ECCLESIASTICAL HiSTORif. J.ECTUBE X%L 

iimphs and hallelujahs of redemption ? Knowledge, 
prudence, diligence, and ecpL^ooij, will liien preside; 
iand of course, extravagance, waste, and all iVivoloui 
desires for the supply ofiieliiioue; want^ will be exter- 
minated. Oovetousness will be exchanged for con- 
tentment f vain a?ul yicions pleasures will be swalt 
lowed up in christian delight ; pride will be led cap- 
tive by humilily ; ambition and pomp will be ridicu- 
led among them whose onlj strife will be who shall 
be chief servant ; activitj will be suhstiintcd for indo- 
lence ; the disposition to amass weakh (t.at our |)os- 
teritj may live in useless, idle luxury will be extin- 
guished by the love of God and trust in his promises, 
so that the experience of t!ie ancient Israelites wii} 
be renewet], ^' he that gatfiered much had nolhing 
over; and he that gatiiered little liad no lack'' — to 
which may be added, that by the extirpation of all 
these evil principles from the human heart, by the 
melioration of all the civil institutions among men, so 
as to render them far superior to the Jews in the most 
splendid days oi their national hislcry, in iiitelligeiicc, 
virtue, and piety; by the unlimited e:^pansion of an 
undying philanthropy er^gendered, fostered and ani- 
mated by the Gospel ; and by the ceaseless benedic- 
tion of God upon all ^' the workol their hands''— eve- 
ry country w'ill become a part of the promi-ed laisd ; 
wher^cewar, pestilence, and femi[>e^ shall be totally 
excluded — for in the days of Jesus, 'Sshall the light- 
fBous flourish, and abundance of peace as long as the 
moon endureth." It is also predicted as tlie erowfi 
of their joys, that to render tlie ft dlovved delitdits of 
that magnificent period uninlermittinj^ and unalloyed, 
three special personal privileires shall be superadded, 
as the ordinary allotment of every individual. They 
shall be divested of all those anxious cares for the 
conveniences of life, which now corrode the minds 
and hearts of almost all (he members of t'ne human 
famdy, for ^'' they shall sit every man under his own 
vine, and every man u.ider his own fig tree" — uninter- 
rupted health saali be enjoyed by all, for '.' there 



1^'HE •i:,-ilLLENNlUM. ,4 .'if 

.^liali be no more pain, there Hliall be no more curse, j 
and die inhabilc.nts pi' the Irnd, shall not saj, 1 am 
^4ick, because his iniquity is iorgiverr' — and a vigor- 
pus., healthi'ub tranquil, and dignified old age will be 
tliC conimoi!, n not the universal inheritance oftlie 
M hole family oi lUdu : '• there siiail no more be an iri- 
faiit pf days, nor nr» old man that liath not tilled his 
dnyi^ ; but the cIaIO sUaiidieanhundred yearsold." 3. 

Spiritual enjoyments. — i he sacred cracles beautiful" 
\y delineate tlie Mdhnuiium in several distinct partic- 
ulars. As the fouiidation and cement of all the rest, 
it prociaims universal and undisturbed " peace on 
pi! lb, and good will to men" — for *• tliey shall beat 
llif'ir swords in^o ploughshares, and their spears into 
pruning hooks ; tuition shall not lift up a sword against 
halion. neilli; r sfiall they learn war any more :" with 
this sliaU be combined an inconceivably superior de- 
gree oi' iiiumiaa:io>2—''' lor iXwy shall not teach eve- 
ry man his nci-i hour, and every man his brother, 
s^^vi??o:, ktiov/ vr: V ■■- - '-'.rd, for all shall kno^y him from 
the least to the £:■' ' '■■■.^'' 

As a certain (o these blessings, the inhab- 

Uants ot the wc ' ' ariin*: those centuries will be pre- 
c^r>ilien^ fj! ii-d™ for ^Mhy people shall all be 
riuhtefu , u nnalloyed perennial felicity is a ne- 

cessary co; s:^quea€e— for thus sailh the Lord, " be- 
hohi, 1 ci ; '^' Hf'w heaver^s and a new earth, and the 
forn>: ts'. P b^ rejTiembered nor come into mind. 
Bui h^ 3^e glad and r -joice forever in that which I 
create. fo>- V^^^^o^-^ ^ create Jerusalem a rejoicing and 
herpeo, < d [will rejoice in Jerusalem and 

joy in n-A pf^<-|Jf' : and tlie voice oi weeping shall be 
no more !ve:Md in her, and the voice of crying, and 
they sirci! noJ r sis t nor destroy in all my holy moun- 
tain, Saith t?:^: ' .:rd.'' 

The an?; ' nations and regal potentates are 

rnoT-f ly a e; ^ of wars; from the first assembly 

o' ki^sgs i-Dc ' h Chedorlaomer and the three o- 

ther rrj ui reboers, ihroogh every combination of the 

2. 4pi>"eadix XX ¥1. 



438 ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. LECTURE XXI. 

same fraternity, to the existing '-'- HoUj Jllliance,-'' — the 
despots of the world have exhibited the same chf^rac- 
terisiics ; their murders and devastatioris are the es- 
sence of ancient and modern universal history. But 
when the last contest in Armaoreddon shall have ter- 
niinated in the capture of the Beast and the false 
prophet, and in the shoots ofvictory by the followers 
of the King of Kings and Lord of Lords ; the unholy 
machinations which have so long transformed the 
world into a general slaughter-house will be destroy- 
ed; the pacific spirit of the religion of Jesus will ex- 
ercise illimitable sway, and all people regulating 
their intercourse by its prescriptions, the roaring of 
cannon, and the clashing of swords will not only be 
odious, but forgotten. 

A very considerable proportion of the sanguinary 
tempers and military spirit which pre(]ominale among 
mankind, especially of that mysterious indifference to 
eternity, which induces a man voluntarily and inces- 
santly to expose his mortal existence to an immediate 
and unexpected termination, in a contest with per- 
sons whom he has never seen, is the result of that 
ignorance in which the various usurpers who have 
attained unlimited authority over tlie people van- 
quished by their myrmidons have uniformly immured 
them. This gloom whicfi has so long overshawed 
the nations, after the irradiations oftlie Holy Ghost 
shall have been generally disp' r-e I. will vanish : and 
it :nay easily be admitted, even iVom a survey of the 
modern improvements in all the m^'ohanical and man- 
ufacturing arts, in chemistry and medicine, and their 
continual progression in augmeutirig the conveniences 
of life, and the supplies of terr'^^strial comfort, that 
these sciences and liuman attainments in them will be 
indefinitely extended ; this furnisher an irresisti- 
ble additional argument for the prodigious nug Dent- 
ation of the numbers of the human family. 

But the information to which the predictions of 
scripture chiefly advert, is that which makes us wise 
unto salvation, the excellency of the knowledge of 
Jesus Christ our Lord. 



THE MlLLEN^•lUM. 439 

'^ The knowledge of the glorious Jehovah : his char- 
acter and ills iiUiiiile perlections displajed in his re- 
kuioiib, asid ill his works, and in his word, present 
him in tlie must vivid colours before our eyes, and 
make us acquainted with the greatest and best of 
bvMiigs — of Uian, his original rectitude, his apostacy 
fro.'iioJocl, ajid iiis mournful condition under a load of 
depravitj, guilt, and wretchedness — of Jesus Christ 
tiie SaViour of sinners, his incarnation, obedience, 
and deallj, and his exaltation to gh:)ry, v/herc he sits 
at the Father's right hand, as Head over all things to 
his church, clothed with Almighty power, and buuiid- 
Icss compassion — the method of reconciliation with 
God, thruugli faith in the righteousness of the Re- 
deemer, accompanied with the renewing of the Holy 
Ghost — of the various duiies and exercises of the 
christian lil'e,~of that bigii vny of holiness, in vvhich 
the redeemed of the Lord do walk: of the world to 
Come, ot the resurrection of the dead, and of eternal 
judgaieiit; of the blessedness of the righteous in hea- 
ven, and of tiie misery of the wicked in hell : — These 
are the outlines of that system with which the world 
shall be eidighteiied in the latter d js." 

Of ibis kiio.vledge, prophecy declares, that it will 
be inefrlibly more abundant than has hitherto been 
known, liiat its effects will be transcendently effica- 
cious and excellent, and that its extent will be most 
minutely universal, so that as the waters fill the ocean, 
no habiiable spot on the globe will be excluded from 
its radiaiice and operations. 

" Through every Protestant land, this divine light 
will be most ahu;idantly shed abroad. From coun- 
tries now sui k in Romish ignorance and superstition, 
will these dreadful evils be banished ; and the same 
exalted degrees of divine kriowledge generally pre- 
vail. In Mohammedan kingdoms, the Koran, wh^^ for 
more than a thousand years has deluded, and i^ s^dl 
d iuding •HK'.dreds of millions of the human kind. i\ ill 
grve p- 1 le writings of the prophets and r p^s- 

tles. 1 lio^/L aiObCjues will be converted into temples 



440 ErCLESIASTICAL HISTORY, LECTUHE iliV 

for christian worship, and the Imans be cornpelied to' 
retire, and leave their place to preachers oi' the Gos- 
pel ; or themselves becom-e such preachers, and eve- 
ry where diffuse the pure light of evangelical truth : 
— and so great will be their success, that an equal 
measure ot the knowledge of the Lord shall fill these 
regions, as is to be found in those which have (or a- 
ges made a proiession of the christian name. Ort 
Pagan lands also will the Sun of FiigiiteoiTsness arise^^ 
with healing in his wings. Though now thcv are mad 
after their idok, with a love which is strong as death, 
and a jealous J which is cruel as the grave ; yet the 
beams of divine glory darting into their oiirids from' 
the faces of those messeiigers of God, wbo bring to' 
them glad tidings of great joy, will produce such a 
change in their spiritual state, as is m^de in the natu- 
ral world, when the gloomiest and most starmy night 
is succeeded by the light of the morning, when the 
sun ariseth, a morning without clouds, aiil still more 
beautified by the grass spri iging out oi the earth, by 
clear shining after rain. All those dark places of the 
earth, even to its remotest boundary, which are now 
the habitation of ignorance as well as crirelty. shal!^ 
be adorned with the brightest rays of divine know- 
ledge : '• for their light is come, and t'le glo;T of the' 
Lord hath arisen upon them." So wonderful shall be 
the change, that if the question should be askedy 
*^ Whether is there a greater measure of divine know- 
iedge among the mhabitants of Hindostan and Tarta- 
vy and China, or in Great Britain and Holland and the 
United States of America .^" it will be dismissed as a' 
doubt which it is impossible to^ resolve : ar if any one 
venture to hazard an answer, it will be '• that they 
are in all respects on a lt?vel ; for every part of the 
earth is filled with the knowledge of the Lord as the 
Waters cover the sea." 

The prevalence of universal peacie, and the gener- 
al dissemination of saving knov^ledge will produce ^ 
degree of sanctity which the world had never beibre' 



THE MlLLENNlUBf. 441 

seen exempliried. " Holiness is a conformity to the 
moral perfections of Jeliovah — an imitation of his 
sanctity, rectitude, and benevolence ; consisting ia 
obedience to the divine commands, and involving 
every duty we owe toGod, our neighbours, and our- 
selves, its excellence appears in love, worship, sub- 
jection, resignation ; in affection for others, and 
all the peaceful fruits of active benevolence for the 
temporal and spiritual welfire of the whole family of 
man ; in self-denial, purity, humility, contentment, and 
zeal tor the divine glory, — all constituting that char- 
acter which we should posses^ as rational and im- 
mortal beings. 

The Gospel, by revealing new relations, has en- 
larged the sphere of our existence, and the circli^of 
our obligations. Hence, an unspeakably important 
but .pleasing addition is made to the holiness of chris- 
tians, — comprising faith, love, obedience, and devo- 
tedness to the Lord Jesus Christ as our Saviour; and 
of reverence, dependence, gratitude, and profound 
eubmission of heart to the Holy Spirit, as our sanc- 
tifier, comforter, and guide." Prophecy affirms that 
this elevation of character and purity of conduct, shall 
pervade " every class of the community, extend over 
the face of the whole earth" and when it is said," thy 
people shall be all righteous," does it not circum- 
scribe within its domains every individual of the in- 
habitants who shall successively walk the christian 
pilgrimage during the Millennium ? 

if we remember the providential and spiritual bies.^** 
in2;s which have thus been enumerated, we can 
easily conceive of the vast accession of enjoyments 
which shall be experienced by men, in all the diver- 
sified conditions of their terrestrial existence. How 
much more delightful will be the domestic relation?, 
the intercourse of friendship, the harmony of neigh- 
bourhoods, and the usefulness of social connections; 
when all envy, malice, disputation, anxious cares, and 
selfi-hness shall be excluded, and evangelical philan- 
thropy shall reign without obstruction. The labours 

3 H 



442 ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY, LLCTUBE XXI. 

cflifo will then be fulfiiied, like the duties of devotion 
withouHassitade or fatigue; and corisequealiy \v\\\ 
coatribate to the pleasurable emotions of those who 
are employed in them, if as is usually supposed., 
with the general renovation of man and his restora- 
tion to the image of God, while Satan is chained in the 
bottomless pit, during a thousand years, the curse 
denounced upon the earth as the punishment of sin 
shall be removed, then will our whole world become 
a terrestrial Paradise, and the garden oi Eden be ex- 
hibited in all its primeval beauty and magnificence; 
so that nature and art will conspire to augment tlie 
pure delights of the citizens. When to these are sub- 
joined the vast expansion of the mind, and the uncloy- 
ing and hallowed enjoyments resulting from an ever 
abiding devotional spirit, and the seraphic exercises 
of religion, we can without difficulty, although feebly 
comprehend the felicity, which shall be commensu- 
rate with the Saviour's kingdom, in whom all men 
shall be blessed, and who shall '• have dominion from 
sea to sea, and from the river to the ends of the earth." 
In thus surveying the perfection of the church of 
Christ, how illustrious does Jehovah appear in his 
management of the world ! That exalted being who 
created the world by his power, rules it by his pro- 
vidence. Infinite wisdom and rectitude regulate 
the universe: and the great Governor is constantly 
carrying on a plan, which will finally issue in tfje glo- 
ry oi God, and in the happiness of all his loyal sub 
jects. The long, the constant, and to all appearar^ce, 
the successful opposition which this government has 
met with from idolatry, error, wickedness and cruel 
ty, has sometimes shaken the faith of multitudes 
with respect to its very existence. The groans oi 
innocence, the tortures of the righteous, and the 
slaughter of the disciples of Christ have templed 
even good men to call the proud happy, and to cry 
out, ", I have cleansed my heart in vain." The tri- 
umphant efforts of lawless ambition, the extensive 
conquests of knavery and power, and the domiiia- 



THE MILLENxN UJ:.!. 443 

lion of the wicked over prostrate nations — have 
provoked {ens of (Jionsands to exclaim, "Is there 
veriljaGod that jndgeth in tlie earth ?" 

But the Lord rcignolh ; and aUhough the workers 
of iniquity do not perceive Jefiovah's presence tjor 
the operation of his h;\nds, the spiritually wise ob- 
serve tlioso liiini^s. o:)d the prudent know that the 
w^ys of ihr^ JjOvo ire right. His interposition in Ira- 
min afEiirs, ihr. jHsplays of his mercy and love in the 
dehverance of his peoph*, and the exertiorjs of his 
pouter and justice in tiie ptiiiishment of the wicked 
have been manifest to them ironi age to age ; — 
th'is the proofs of the righteons government of God 
have been multiplied from generation to generation. 
P^^oah's preservation in the ark; tfie call of Abraham 
from Ur of the Chaldees ; the deliverance of Israel 
from Egjptiaii bondage, and their settlement in Ca- 
naan ; their return from Babylonisfi caplivity; the 
birth of Clirist at Bethlehem ; the judgments of heav- 
en on the Je^vs for rejecting the Messiah; the main- 
taining of the Cliristiaii churcii in existence notwith- 
standing the opposition of Pagans, and the persecu- 
tion of Antichrist ; and tfie freedom from its enemies 
which it has now in part obtained — furnisli the fullest 
demonstration of the reaHty and excellence of theju- 
risdiction of God. But while the children of wisdom 
clearly perceive Jehovah's hand — what multitudes 
a.vc, blinded and see it not ! Yet from those late dis- 
pensations of Providence wdiich have shaken terribly 
the eart'i. millions of m-ankind are constrairied to 
ackiiowledge that" the Lord God omnipotent vei'rii^ 
eth/' 

But when the Millennium shall have arrived, all 
the difficulties and objections of men with respect to 
the government of Jehovalu will vanish as tiie shadcvS 
of nigsit before the rising snn. As soon as the seven! h 
Angel sounds his Irmnpet. the mystery of God shall be 
finished ; the divine govcriniient will shine forth in 
all its lustre; and ;^.ssembied multitudes in every 
land will render, in their worsljip, the homaire due (^ 



444 



ErCLESIASTICAL KiSTOKr. 



JLtCTURE XXf. 



his exalted name. From the rising of the sun to hig. 
going down, the Lord will bekifig over ail the earth. 
By tlje love and dutifidness oi his subjects, and tho 
commufjications of extraordinary measures of happi- 
ness to all who are under his dominion ; the excel* 
le ice of the ruler and his government will be dis- 
played. 

There shall be no more curse ; then shall the earth 
yield her increase ; abundance shall every where 
reign; and contentment, peace and joy, fill the hearts 
of the people in every nation. Then will this hymn 
of praise be sung iti the loudest strains: '* the Lord 
reigneth, let the earth rejoice, let the multitude of 
the isles be glad thereof" 

How sublime are the views, which this consum- 
mation of the glorious effects of gospel grace imparts^ 
of the redemption of sinners by Jesus Christ! This 
IS the greatest work of God; that which he most 
highly values, and to which all others are subor- 
dinate ; that for which all other works were made ; 
and that which will be the grand theme of praise, 
and infinitely the highest source of blessedness to the 
saints in heaven through all eternity. Redemption 
is that method of delivering men from guih, depravity, 
and misery, and of restoring them to the divine fa- 
vour, to the image of God, and to eternal blessed- 
ness, which Jehovah in his supreme wisdom devised, 
and which was accomplished by the incarnation, 
obedience and death of the Lord Jesus Clirist — the 
brightness of the Father's glory, and the express 
image of his person. From the day on which the 
Saviaur died upon the cross, this glorious dispensa- 
tion, in the faith of which saints from the beginning 
of the world had lived, has shed its saving eificacy 
on the souls of men ; and wherever it has been re- 
ceived, righteousness, holiness, and happiness have 
been ever the infallible consequence. 

Since the day of Pentecost, when salvation was 
first proclaimed to the world by the apostles of Christ, 
with the Holy Ghost sent down from heavei), it has 



THE MILLENNIUM. 445' 

incessantly been attacked by potent and bittep foes 
even to the present day. Jewish unbelief sought to 
strangle it ill its birth — persecuted the disciples of 
Jesus without mercy; and its champion Saul of Tar- 
sus, rather than be unemployed in a work of blood, 
kept the clothes of hiiii who stoned to death the first 
Christian martyr. When divine justice punished the 
murderers of Christ and of his followers, by the de- 
struction of the Jewish nation, Paganism seized the 
weapons of hostility to the cross of Christ; and the 
pv^:tient sufferings of thousands under bitter persecu- 
tions, United with the hope of glory amidst their suf- 
ferings, displayed the grandeur of redemption. Hea- 
then enmity to Immanuel was succeeded by Aiiti- 
christian superstition and idolatry, which under a 
pretext of superior veneration for a crucified Sa- 
viour, persecuted the friends of the pure doctrines 
of the Gospel with a keener hatred if possible than 
either Pagans or Jews. During Antichrist's reign, 
it is almost by their blood only that the partakers of 
salvation can be traced ; and in its stream we 
view with admiration tlie excellence of its principles, 
in the meekness, the peace, and the joy with which 
they endured martyrdom in its most terrifying forms. 
Since the era of the reformation, the triumphs of re- 
demption have been more numerous and more exten- 
sive. Still however the gospel has found adversaries: 
heresies have obscured its lustre — the spirit of the 
world has despised its blessings — and the reign of 
iniquity among the mass of the people professing to 
be disciples of the Son of God has tarnished its pure 
and spiritual glory — yet Popery defaces its brightness ; 
and Judaism, Mohammedanism, and Paganism en- 
tirely conceal it from hundreds of millions of the hu- 
man race. 

But when the Millennium arrives,the redemption of 
sinners will be displayed in all its splendour. The 
divine plan from eternity ; the person of the Media- 
tor as God manifest in the flesh ; the infinite merit of 
his obedience, the atonement made by his sufTerings 



-V *.-sI»idi<&».B»,jiiiSj. . 



446 ECCLESIASTICAL MrST0RY. LECTURE XXI. 

iinfo death, vdid his intercession at the Fathers 
rhxhi hand : tlie blessings resuUing from the media- 
tion ot'Chris};, pardorj and reconciliation with GoiU 
the sanctificatioM of the soul by the Holy Ghost, corn- 
raanion v^itb Jehovah here, and eternal felicity in 
heaven— will be distinctly understood and cordially 
received ; and are truths that will produce sonctity of 
character, loyalty to God, benevolence to the whole 
family of man, harmorjy in private life, peace be- 
tween nations, and an extraordinary degree of hap 
piness ; which will be extended with the gospel whicf 
produced them, over the face of the whole globe 
From generation to generation, the mass ofmankiijd 
will share in these ineslimable benefits, the enjoymeni 
of which will render earlli a paradise, and prepare 
a multitude which no man can number for the bless 
edness of the celestial state. 

The glory of the Millennium is the unrestricted 
operation of the Gospel of Christ upon every indi- 
vidual, in his personal experience and social rela- 
tions. Even now, the ditference between some per- 
sons is so vast, that the contrasts of the latter day 
can scarcely exhibit a greater distinction. Bring viv- 
idly before your imaginalion, the various Missionaries 
and the semi-brutal subjects of their instruction. 
Walk Willi Carey and Marshman and Ward on the 
banks of the Ganges, around the funeral pile where 
the Indian widows are consumed ; and can you con- 
ceive of any thing more widely separated than those 
Eastern Luminaries, and the bond children of dark- 
ness whom they strive to enlighten ? Seat yourselves 
with Campbell and Read and Philip in a Hottentot's 
kraal, and you must be more besotted than the Caf- 
frarians themselves, if you can not discern the al- 
most incredible effects produced by the instrumen- 
tality of Vaoderkemp, Kicherer, and their Brethren. 
From the Northern Esquimaux to the Islanders of the 
South Pacific, wherever a Missionary works^ there the 
stupendous features of the Millennium may in some 
measure be discerned : and your own Missionaries 



TilE MILLENNIUM. 447 

at Brairicrd, Ma} hew, Eiliolt, Dwight, Harmony, and 
Union present an exhibition in contrast vvilli the 
Cherokees, Creeks, and Osages around them — some- 
tiling hke that which the present highest portion of 
christiaiiiiy will appear, when compared with the pre- 
eminent illumination, unalloyed sanctity, and ceaseless 
consoiaiions which shall characterize that terrestrial 
day ol'iiie Lord, the type of the New-Jerusalem. 

Christians of every denomination are urged to la- 
bour witfi ail tiieir might, that the prirjciples of " pure 
and undefiled religioij'^roay be exalted to their utmost 
Millennial extent and giory. In the methods adopt- 
ed to introduce the benigfited nations of our globe 
to the faith of Christ, we must co-operate ; by our ex- 
ertions, donations, and influence, and especially by 
our fervid and ceaseless implorations for the destruc- 
tion of Satan's Kingdom, and for the predicted amp- 
litude of Messiah's triumplis. Rejoice that you have 
seeti the evangelizing of the v^orld commence, and 
that you have assisted in founding the divine fabric ; 
add stone to stone with all speed, and animate otljers 
-Jilso to work diligeiilly, because ere long you shall 
hear the mandate of tiie rvlaslcr; ^^ go thou thy way, 
for thou shall rest :" for liiat season prepare; and al- 
though you on earth may not feel tlie Millennium ; 
you shall be admittv?d to tiie extacy of celestial bliss, 
and there behold the gradual progression of the church 
to the consummation of its promised glory; contem- 
plate the thousand years as they rapidly and delight- 
fully revolve; and then, after the dissolution of earth 
and time, you shall exult in the enjoyment of felicity 
without intermission and everlasting. *' The grace of 
our jLord Jesu^ Chrvst be icith you alV^ AMEN. 



.a'ME END. 



NOTICE. 



^'^ The Author regrets essential erratta in the work ; they are now »r- 
j-emeiliable : to obviate hyper-critieism, he thereiore states that lie has not 
deemed it necessary to notice either literal mistakes, whether tiiey involve 
the orthography, or tbe syntax.: or veibal allerations when the word is 
merely a duplicate, or a inanitest oversigiit ; or in short, ai»y eiror wisich 
does not affect the uuderstanding ot* the subject. The foUoTving require 
corrcxtion. 
Page 119 \iiie2j7'om ike end ; instead of, its complete, ^c. re^.d, '.va« the 

complete and cunning adaptation of the doctrines of the Koran to 

the depravity, &c. 
167 line 37. Jfter to, msgrf attempt. 
201 line 1. For and read a. 
Sliline 26. /^or suprecy, reai supremacy. 
^50 line 1 4. For all, read halt of 
257 line 11. For that island, read his diocess. 
260 line 30. Insert a colon : after protracted. 
273 line 20. For iaaputatioa, read importatioa. 
232 line 25. For they, read the Reformers. 
306 line 9. After had, insert not. 
322 line 32. For GeuGvan, read general. 

421 line 23. For Zuir, read Zion. 

422 line 38. For law, read love. 

424 line 10. Jfter are, insert conjoined. 

430 line 24. For personal, read powerful. 

438 line 26. For overshawed, read ovenhadowed. 

APPENDIX. 

Page 6 line 6 from bottom, instead of -^ read, of Ministers. 
Page 42 luie 12 from bottom, instead of p -.jtee, read last note. 
Page 56 liae 2 from bottom, tifter riew insert have. 



APFENliIX. 



The nature of these Lectures precluded the intro* 
auction of a variety of inatter, which might tend to 
the enlarged comprehension of the multifarious sub- 
jects that have passed under review. Defect there- 
lore was essentially com bined with the whole plan ; 
but in some measure to obviate this unavoidable 
ciiaracteristic of the design ; after the publication of 
the Lectures had been arranged, it was determined 
to supply the most obvious deficiencies, by annota- 
tions appended to those subjects, which seemed to 
demand additional explanation. Distinct and con- 
cise illustrations were required upon a number of 
articles introduced; especially to convey to those 
for whose illumination these lectures were principal- 
ly delivered, more accurate views of the diversified 
history ot the Church. These notes are still inade- 
quate ; but comprehension was one of the prominent 
objects ; and it was neither proposed nor practicable 
to condense within a short popular course of ad- 
dresses an expanded view of all that interests in the 
revolutions which the church of Christ has experien- 
ced. The following elucidations however, may have 
a tendency to excite a desire for more ample infor- 
mation upon the topics of which these Lectures form 
only a syllabus. 

The difficulty with the Author has not been what 
matter he shall insert; the labour has often been very 
serious to ascertain what he shall reject ; and from 
the immense mass of materials to select that only 
which was compatible with the avowed purpose ; 
to embody in the smallest portraiture possible, 
the multiform features of the ecclesiastical world 

1 



Z APPENPU... 

since that day, when the followers of the Lauib be- 
gan " to continue stedfast in the Apostle's doctrine 
and fellowship, and in breaking of bread and of 
prayers," until the present period ; with a prospect- 
ive glance over the evangelical landscape, as it is 
exhibited to us in the delineations of prophecy, when 
in him who is greater than Solomon, '* men shall be 
blessed, and all nations shall call him blessed ; and 
the whole earth shall be filled with his glory. Amen.'' 

/. Page 7. The Christian religion verUled by facts. 

The argument introduced in the introductory lecture, merits aduilional 
illustration for the sake of those who may never have inquired vvliether the 
Sacred Scriptures can be demonstrated to be authentic and divinely ins- 
pired. Fact is the most easily comprehensible oi" all evidence, and its 
tbrce has thus been very luminously stated. — 

" If the facts recorded in the Gospel are incontestable, and if the mira- 
cles of Jesus Christ are admitted, then his religion is substantiated by 
proofs more than sutScJent ; and without adveiting to interminable contro- 
versies respectisig doctrines, this point involves a general and authoritative 
decision. 

Proofs of facts constitute the most weighty testimony, the most perfect 
certitude to which the human mind can attain. In things not self-evident : 
because it is more congenial and proportioned to the feebleness of our con- 
ceptions — because the uniform verifications of an ancient occurrence 
involve truths and principles «8sen'tia! to human nature, and of which the 
impression is so general, profound and vivid, that they are a prominent 
part of the basis upon which civil Society is founded — because they are 
less suttject to disputatious subtlety, or artificial ratiocination — because 
no energy of argument can balance, much less vanquish an (uideniable 
fact — and because an event includes at least to the grasp of our knowleiige, 
the largest fertility of consequences evidently certain and regular. Now, 
facts thus demonstrate the truth of the Christian Religion : tor God infi- 
nitely good and holy cannot authorize imposture, or sanction by his con- 
currence the seductions of the adversary ; but by miracles, the apparent 
suspension of the laws which govern the universe, the powei of God is 
exhibited in the most impressive manner ; as it is obvious, that the ordtr 
established by Omnipotence, can be deranged only by him. Hence when- 
ever prodigies or evident interruptions of the general and pre-estabiished 
harmony of things are exhibited, God is the author ; and therefore every 
doctrine authorized by the suspensions of the ordinary laws of creation, 
is truth certified by the Sovereign of the Universe, if it can be evinced onl,'?, 
that the facts in corroboration are indubitable. 

It is admitted that Christia^nity includes principles of faith which stagger 
all evidence ; but mark the wonders which accompanied their origh)al 
promulgation; and behold all nature obedient to the voice of him who 
taught them. All corporeal diseases vanish ; winds and tempests are instan- 
taneously calmed ; the fury of the waves in a storm become a plain on 
which the human body walks ; and the entombed dead arise to natnrar 
life. 



■xamm 



APPENDIX. d 

fRIiese wondew attest t!ie religion of Jestis, one of thcee inferences 
mu-it bo chosen, a {oiiith cannot be invented. 

It must be asserted, that God sport*? with tire feeble reason of men. and 
deceives thenn by the exhibitions of his Omnipotence ; this is Atheistic 
|/}aspheiny — or that the doctrines of Christ are true, since God has confirm- 
ed them by the most extraordinary superhuman operations; this is Ctnis- 
tian confidence— or that all the mysteries of t!)e Gos|)el are enthusinstic 
reveries, because the alleged miracles were liever performed ; this is the 
Scorner's infidelity. 

But what are the characteristics which place a fisot in immovable cer- 
tainty ? It must be possible, involving no absurdity or contradiction — 
annonnced not by one person alone, bnt averred by many cotemporary and 
ocular witnesses, enlightened, ingenious, sincere, neither deluded nor 
deceivers — the fact must be interesting in in its nature, anfl public in its 
exhibition, demonstrating; its verity by its co.Mijction with subsequent 
circumstances which originate in that event, and remaining uncontradicted 
not only by the parties whom it may benefit, but also by those whom it 
otfends ; and if it shall have occurred at an ancient cpocha, or a very dis- 
tant country, that it still be detailed without alteratioii, and in ail the 
genuine integrity of truth. 

Apply these criteria to the sacred scriptures. The most stupendous 
prodigies recorded in its pages, are neither absurd, contradictory nor im- 
possible — every circumstance as narrated, unfolds the actual presence of 
the writer, ** that which we have seen and heard declare we unto you" — 
and the authenticity of the bible is sustained by traditionary suffrage, cons- 
tant, unanimous.. an<3 universal ; circumscribing the learning of all 
generations, tlie inhabitants of all lands, and the numberless disputants of 
every discordant sect whether heretical or orthodox. Besides the candour 
and sincerity of the witnesses clothe tliC facts in the garb of the utmost cre- 
dibility. Examine their characters — unimpeached by their implacable 
foes : unambitious, frank, exposing their own delects : patient, resigned, 
uncomplaining, having no temporal interest to seduce tliem, and a merciless 
death their only remuneration : men whom no historian has dared to con- 
tradict, by whose word the world has been transformed, and whose cause 
martyrdom has constantly sustained. Whether we regard the nature of the 
facts, or the circumstances regarding their original publication, among 
their foes, and itnmediately al'tei they occurred, we have more than suffi- 
cient evjience of their indisputable truth and validity^ because no events 
"'-ould be more interesting in their nature or more public in their transaction 
and development. 

Every fact is indubitable when others tncontestab'y certain are the 
necessary effects of it ; bnt with the actions of Christ are indi^solnblj com. 
rSined results now existing ; therefore the miracles of the Saviour are 
undeniable. A consequence pioves the principle ;-stieains declare a source; 
dependence involves an origin : and effects drmnnstrale a cause. The 
following most stupendous events ^ither have no asssi2;i?able cause, or they 
are inseparably concatenated with tiie life, death, resurrection a!ul ascen- 
sion of Jesus of Nazarath, the King of the Jews— the transforination oS the 
world and the conversion of t!je nations from idolatry to the worship of 
the one living and true God,' and the number and fortitude and the 
oonstaacy of the IVlartyrs. Upon this last circumstance, it is xptortedt 
ihat not th^ hope full of immortality, but a fanatiea! delirirun, or an 
ambitious desire of a great name, or their own simple crcilulity and 
facility to be deceived induced them to exult in incessant persecution. 
This reply falsifies all history; for the noblest devotees, the glory oftha 
Pagan Mythology, abandoned tfieir altars, embraced the cjoss, cor»fute<| 
t;be sophists, and in their torturer;; ble^sged their tormentars. 



4 AFT END rX. 

Thus it is evident, that upon a pa/i a')le fact (hey conU nr.t he ^irr^Iveo j 
so with respect to the miracles whiciii they fheraselves peifornied, it '.v-i:- 
impossible for them to be dehiried. Ireuaens assures ns that th^y banishtd 
(diseases, revealed thoughts, spak'e in <iivers iansiiages, and niis&dtlje fiend 
to life. Origen, TertiilUan an' Eiisebiiis, chri-^tians ; Celsus, Porpliyry, 
am! Julian, Atheist-^, ail connborate this woiuirons naifative. To iij se 
iiicts, let a third be subjoined •• siiR-e the Apostolic era, celebratic.is and 
feasts have been anintermiltiugiy maintained by the disciples. On the first 
day of the week, they asserable'l to break bread ; and without interrnpUon, 
that day has continued in every age and country, to be raosl precisely andl 
rigorously the distinctive feptiVa! of Christians for thanksgiving, prayer 
and repose. The ordinance of Baptism and the Lord's Supper ; the 
certitude of Immanuel's resnrreciion by the designation of a weekly day to 
hallow the remembrance of it. are all the couseqaesices of that event ; and 
cnulf? not otherwise have been authotized, established and prolonged. 

it must be also remembered, that the prodigies displayed by the Lord 
■Sesus Christ, have been authontatively verified by those who w^ere inte- 
rested in dixi^rovitig and denying tliem. J mvs, Pagans and Mohanimedaiis 
all lestii'y to the trnth of the evangelical annals. John the Baptist, the 
Pharisees, the High Priest, Herod, Agrij^pa, the seven sons of Seeva, 
Josephns, and the Talraudists, all admit, that the God of Christians had 
astouuded the earth by " his marvellous works.'* The innocence of the 
Redeemer is attested by Porphyry, Celsus, Julian the Apostate ; and 
honour was appropriated to our Lord by Tiberius, Adrian, Marcus Aurelius, 
AntoniuuK, Alexand^^r Severus, Emperors;^ — Piiny, Suetonius, Clialchidins, 
Fhlegon, Thaltus, Macrobius, Lncian, Historians, *det;'*l the prominen?: 
facts of the Gospel, and tlie sublime virtues of the prinative christians; 
while the Koran consists principally of the wo!idei.s ot Jesus Christ, distor- 
ted, disfigured and debased ; but never disputed or denied- 

That the detail of these facts has survived the lapse of ages without 
change is manifest ; if we consider that the supposition even ol* 
any alteration involves the utmost contradiction and absurdity. No 
period can be specified for the corruption ; no motives can be alleged 
to justify the fraud ; no portion can be extracted to devclope the forgery, 
and no persons can be adduced as (he authors of the deception. It is 
contrary to all moral possibility, that any person siiould ever be so 
audacious as exteiisively to corrupt the Go-^pel ; because it could not bo 
the Pagans, the Jews or the Christians : the Heathens felt no interest in 
the books— the Jews and Christians would have mutually itnpeded each 
other ; and even had the children of Israel not interposed, the disciples of 
the Lord could not have executed it. The Manuscripts were scattered 
from one end of the civilized worjd to the other, so that the whole body 
could not combine ; a sect however willing was notable, and individuals 
were totally incompetent : and the allegation that the Christian systera 
has been effectually corrupted to any extent and importance, has 
never been advanced by any infidel or heretic, at any period, or of 
any country. With respect to the epoch, it was either previous or sub- 
sequent to the first apologies of the earliest writers. But the quotations of 
Clemens and others are in exa«t conformity with the acknowledged text ; 
and if it be replied that the change was even prior to that age, then it 
follows, tljat the Apostles and Evangelists corrupted their own gennire 
works ; which is a supposition equally as irrational as the declaration of" 
him who averred that the New Testament, with all the ponderous eccle- 
siastical Authors anterior to Constantine, was manufactured by an Impos- 
tor, or by the Emperor's command to sanction his imperial authority.: — 
But as all men act upon views of interest, and a lalsificatiou of the volurae 



^mfim 



which they theirisolvos esteem sacrerl mn?:t. have eome niuli^^^j — it i.« 
('jtiinanded, i:i what part of the Go^uel can any alteration Tip (Msrovered ? 
tlu'ir innoceirce oi" character precluded t'(»em I'rom deUri(Milin'^ I'roin thv 
eflicacy of divine injunctions ; — it they had been deceivers th»7 v.oold not 
have formed a yoke of severe seli-deisial. 

The mysteriousiiess ofsome of the, evangelical doctrines vrould infallilily 
have r(iined their inventors ; and an ap^seal to conteniporaiies as witnesses 
foi liie trnlh of the most incredible of all events, unless tliey !»ad heard 
and seen them, and without the most positive and mult nlaljfe tes'imony 
ot the senses vvonid have been <ui act of liiuacy. not the conduct of arti'iil 
and ciuining deC(^piions fabriciitors. To persnadc persons that they have 
seen prodigios ivhidi never appeared, and to cite them as evidence of 
that which never existed, is such i«n excess of infatuation, that in th<^ 
nomenclature of iiumaa langnage an epithet has not yet been discovered 
to express its preposterous and enormous absurdity. Consequently, it is 
demonstrable, that the evanf:;e!ical history is an authentic and gentJiiio 
Jiarrative, celestially inspired, conlirmed by divine sanctio': ; and that fee 
history of the chr.ich and ti'.e. world, which is the resint of its orijiinal 
proin;il2;ation. most urgently claims our attention as secondjuy only to the 
smper (Suable dictates of eveihisiii^g truth ; v^'hich are *' the light of our i'cet 
and the lamp of our path." 

//. Page 1 7, The Impropriety of our Juvenile books. 

By the exclusion of the history of the christian church from the early 
course of reading, as an appendage to the sacred voluine, a vicious taste in 
our youth is formed. Having roved among the voluptuous fictions of the 
fabulous ages ; having been charmed with the luscious and intoxicating 
descriptions of the ancient Bacchanalian and sensual mythology ; having 
imbibed a suppositious sanction for their unhallowed and domincnt pio 
pensities ; having been taught to admire above all other personages ihc 
chara ters of the human butchers who tyrannized over the nations in anti- 
quity ; and having bcei) induced to suppose that tlie idolatrous Greece 
and Pagan Rome yield ail the literary productions which merit attention ; 
they turn with disgust from records that dispel the licentious phantoms of 
imagination, and that rivet the mind to the sober realities oi the world — 
they discover no attsaction in pages which ever represent the sr.bjects of 
their semi-idolatry, the Jupiter, the Juno, the Bacchus, the Venus, witJi 
all the other fancied abominable rabble of ancient Oljmpus, as merely dif- 
ferent exhibitions of that arch.devil, whom, as the Ephesians said of their 
idol Diana, all the world worshipped ; and because they have no relish ; 
they are dissatisfied with a volume in which every principle of error and 
delusion is effectually dispelled, and every naovemeut of vice is distinctly 
reprobated. 

In the embellishnnents with which unprincipled and infidel Authors 
have attempted to decorate the Alexanders and Caesars of the oJden times ; 
the minds of youth often forget the magnitude of their personal crimes and 
the deluge of misery with which they overwhelmed the nations whither 
their madness impelled them ; hence the inflated juvenile readers become 
wninterested in the examples of patient suffering, humble confidence and 
Sriumphant serenity of the less noisy but more heroic warrior who, through 
divine grace, conquers himself; and because they hear Homer, Demosthe- 
nes, Cicero, Viigii and Horace applauded as without equals, they affect 
to disdain tht writers who have (lourished since the Christian era ; all 
whose powers are consecrated to the service of that cause, and the illus- 
tratioQ of that book, which alone will survive the final conflagratioo. 



p ABl^ENDIX. 

When *' tiie eleFiisntfi shall melt witli fervent heat, and tl>e lieavens hi'hi^ 
on fire shall b^? dissolved." The attention devoted to tfis Books generalbj 
denominated Classic, is om of the grand sources of that infideliiy of pria- 
ciple and vitiosiiy in practice, nhick so manjj of (hose, whose yovnger yearn 
elapse in the study of them, exhibit. Let it be remerubered also, that 
there is not les>' geiifiis, mnch more nsct'iil knowledge, and inconceiv- 
isbly higher c-.dificatioa to be de(hjced from the Tinker's Pilgrim, than 
I'roin all the Farrago oftlie Aiigustan age; and one of the best means to aid 
the cajjseof *' Pure and undefiied Religion," to promote the virtuous prin- 
ciples ofouryouth, and to assist in the promulgation of cvangeiieal verities, 
is to invert the preseni" order of study ; and instead of first imbruing the 
mind with ail the irreligion of the most preposterous Atheism, and excit- 
ing an almost inextinguishable attachment to the corrnptions of the 
Bacchanals; to substitute the annals of the Christian church as tiie intro- 
duction to all other general topics, and tlie primary course in the historical 
department. 

The Author is sensible, that upon t])is subject he is in the minority ; but 
he has never yet found a Christian classical scholar, who did not lament 
the baleful effects of those associations of ideas wljich originuted in the 
ribaldry of the Heathen Mytholagists, to w'ljch his attention was directed 
when he was entering the vestibule of literature ; and he has off*en heard 
distinguished Greek and Latin instructors, expressing their wish for a total ^ 
change in the, books prescribed for initiation Into the knowledge of those "^ 
languages. " It is a consummation devoutly to be wished." 

Ill Page 23. Bid Peter ever visit Rome ? 

Considerable doubt attaches to the traditionary fact, that Peter was 
martyred at Rome. Ensebius however asserts it as of unquestionable 
authenticity. No person could have foreseen the base purposes for 
which it would have been used by the Papists ; however, nnder any 
circumstances, the whole Antiehristian hierarchy vanishes, and leaves not 
a wreck behind ; when its basis is an event that Scriptnre docs not record, 
and the justest inferences from which render at least improbable. 

JV. Page 39. TAe seven churches in Asia. 

The Missionaries Parsons and l<'isk in their late research of this evan- 
gelical district, describe the present situation of these remains of antiquity- 
With the exception of Laodicea, the natural destruction is not altogether 
so complete as prior travellers had induced us to believe; but the explo- 
ration confirms the fact, that the spiritual desolation is almost total. 

V, Page 42. The independent or congregational system of Church go-i\ 
ernment established by the Gospel. 

Primitive Christianity in its regulations, discipline and Officers wa?? 
speedily deteriorated by the corruption and especially by the ambition of 
men. However wonderful the anomaly, yet it vvas elicited at a very early 
period, after the death ot the Apostfe John. An occasional, or a volun- 
tary, or an invited oradelegated Assoc iatioaC^and Members of Churches 
assuming no jisrisdtctioa, and exercising no Lordship oyer the Christian 
Societies connected with them, is often beneficial, as such meetings pro- 
mote harmony and combine exertion : but an established, enjoined, and 
undying body of distinct spiritual Legislators and Judges, under whatever 
oaoas or by whatever pr«:.ext psrpef.uated, is " the tail of the old Scorpidn 



',vi!h a'li bis vfnom.*' Willi regard to Church yiower and individual 
privilf^ges : the quaint liiilh ot" one of llie pristine Puritans could easily 
jje (leinonstraled. Ag;ainst the ancient Kpiscdpal HieraiciiV, he irresisli- 
\>\y urged, that there »vas *♦ no consistent ground on which a christian could 
stand, hetnecn intirdiersliip in an Independent society of Believers, and 
kissing tlie Pope's toe," In truth, all the various clerical aristocracies now 
t-xisting are only bastaid modifications of tiie Papacy ; the present sitna- 
licii of Lliiiifis requiring that their most odious excrescences should be 
citlicr removed or concealed. 

In every ;;;ie, they liave displayed siniihir despotism in rnlr, absc^rdity 
?nd error in decision, and rottenness of principle, to that which charactc- 
! izt^d the councils who forged the chains ibr the minds of the inhabitants 
i)!'the iron ages. Rides and laws, resolutions and acts, denunciations and 
t^itnons, creeds and explications, rf plies and amendments, all are fiamed 
in tliese assemblies, not according to the oracles of tnth, or the requisitions 
ofcqiiity, or evangelical freedom, or the spirit of the Gospel, but for the 
purposes of iiit<dlectual vassalage, and by the doctrine of expediency: 
and as an uuavoifiable consequence, their prnceedinii;s ;ue an inextricable 
maze of endless inconsistencies, injustice aju! conliadU lion. But as the 
iiisioiy oi Hie clinrch in modern ageswiil unavoidably rrcord some memo- 
.vilile iusianccs ol that wondrous tergiversation aiid drpaituie from rectitude, 
which is the most prominent feature of Uiose ecciesiastical nuisances ; and 
iS the history of the EtiglisJi Puritans and Nonconformists, and the New 
England Congregationaiists will comprize a general exposition of their 
platform of churcli governmeut, the subject is hence transferred to that 
uanative, as its more appropriate department. 

VI. fageC'l. Extracts frcm the Letters of the Churches at Smyrna and 
L'^ons respecting their persecutions. 

The church of God which is at Smyrna, unto all the congregations 
throughout Ponius, mercy, peace and the love of God the Father, and of 
our Lord Jesus Christ be multiplied. 

We have written unto you brethren, of such as suffered martyrdom, and 
of blessed Polycarp, vvlw) signed and sealed the persecution with his own 
blood. The beholders were amazed, seeing the llesh of the Martyrs rent 
with scoiuges, even into the inner veins and sinews, so that the most 
secret entrails of their bodies, their bowels were piteously to be seeo. 
Beholding again (he sharp shells of sea fish, antl pebble stones strewed 
under the Martyrs backs and bruised bodies, with every kind of torment 
that could be devised. Last of ail they were thrown to be torn to pieces, and 
be devoured of wild beasts. Germanicus valiantly endured and overcame 
through the grace of God, that corporeal fear of death, grafted in the frail 
iiature of man : lor when the Proconsul exhorted him to relent, admo- 
jiished him of his tender years, prayed him to pity his own tase being now 
in the flower of his youth ; he without intcrn)ission, desired that with 
speed he might be dispatched of this crue! and wicked lite. Which patience 
and constancy of the blessed Martyr, and of the whole Chiistian nation, 
the multitude of infidels beholding, suddenly cried out, *• Remove the 
wicked, seek out Polycarp" He hearing the report of this cruel persecu- 
tion^ retained the immoveable tranquility of his mind, and continued 
in the city, until at length he was persuaded to go aside for a season, where 
he abode with a few ; occupied day and night only in prayer, making 
supplication after his usual manner, for the tranquillity and peace of all 
congregations throughout the world. Three days belbre he was taken, 
he saw in a vision by night, the pillow nnder his head get oh fire, sod 



g APPENDIX. 

sntHeihr ca^;:airiea lo ashes; when he awaked, he interprotoi' his vislot; 
to ^h I?" who v-eva then present, plainly prognosticating tiiat it shoull 
,-G Tie ;: ; as5, that his lite shoiild be ended, that his body should be b\sn< d 
wnie iieslimony of Ciirist. When the searchers were at hanci, at ihe 
oiaaes: uitreaty of his friends, he lied thence unto another vilU-gc, uJuie 
the ^)!!rsners came, whdtook two boys of that piace, and scourged UKm 
imWi oaeol'themcoatiBssed the circumstance, and led them to the ioug!i)|: 
of Folycarp. When they had entered in, they found him lying in an iipix ?^ 
chamber where he might have escaped if it pleased him. But he said : 
the mil of ik& Lord befulfillcd. ''or he understanding their pretence. 
came down, communed with them pleasantly and cheerfnlly, so ^i:al 
they which knew him not before, stedfastly eyed his comely age, niar- 
veUing thai a man of such years should betaken He commanded the 
table forthwith to be covered, meat to be laid on, requested them to make 
merrv, craved of them the space of one hour ior prayer: that ben;g 
granted, he rose up, went to prayer so replenished by the grace ot God, 
that such as were present and prayed, hearing his devotion, were ravjsa- 
ed, and many sorrowed, that so honest and godly a father slionld dte. 
When he had ended his prayer, thev sethiraon an ass, and brought him to 
the city being on the great Sabbath day. There met him Herod the jus. 
tice of peace, and his father Nicetes, who receiving him into their chariot, 
persuaded inni, saying : " what harm is it to say Lord Ca!<;ar, to sacrifice, 
and so be saved ?'" At the first he answered nothing, but when they 
urged him he said : " I will not condescend to your counsel." They per- 
ceiving he would not be persuaded gave him very rough language, and 
tumbled him out of the waggon, to the bruising his shins : but he as though 
he had been nothing hurt nor injured at all, went bolt upright, cheerful 
and apace towards the theatre. When be was come upon the theatre or 
stage, a voice came down from heaven, which by reason of the great tumult 
was heard of tew : Be of good cheer, O Polijcarp, aad play thj man — 
The speaker no man saw, but the voice was heard by many of us. In the 
mean time the multitude was in a rage, seeing Fofycarp brought forth ; 
the Proconsul demanded of him whether he were that Poiycarp, beckon- 
ing that he should deny it, and saying : "Tender thine years," with such 
like persuasions, *• Swear by the fortune of Csesar, repent thee of that is 
past, say, remove the wicked." But Poiycarp beholding with unraovable 
countenance the mukitnde round about the stage, pointing with the hand, 
and sighiing, and looking up to heaven, said : '* Remove O Lord these 
wicked." When the Proconsul urged and said, svFear, and I will let thee 
go, blaspheme and defy Christ, Poiycarp answered: Fourscore and six 
years have I served him, neither hatk he at any time ever offended me in 
anything; and how can I revUe my king who hath thus kept mel The 
Proconsul still urged and said, "Swear by the fortinie of Cffisar." — 
To whom, Poiycarp : " If thou requirest this vain glory, that I protest 
the fortune of Cassar, as thou sayest, feigning thou knnwest me not who I 
am : here freely, I am a Christian : and if thou desirest to know the doctrine 
of Christianity, appoint the day and thou shall hear it." When the Pro- 
consul said, '• persuade this people :" Poiycarp answered . " I have vouch- 
safed to confer with thee." To this the Proconsul said : F have wild 
beasts to devour thee unless thou repent. Poiycarp answered, /' bring 
them forth." Again the Proconsul said : "I will quiet thee with fire if 
thou regard not the beasts nor repent;" to whom Poiycarp answered : "Thou 
threatenest fire lor an hour, which lasteth a while and qifickly is quenclied, 
but thou art ignoraut of the everlasting fire at the day of judgment, and 
endless torments reserved ior the wicked. But why lingerest thou ? — 
dispatch as it pleaseth thee." Uttering these words, ha was constant and 



ClmertuI, and ]:\^. countenance so o:racious. that llie Proconsul being am:ized, 
c-ninaranded the beadle in the midst ot the ihevitre, thrice to cry : " Poly- 
oarp coiWesseth ftimsella christian." At vvhirh saying, the multiude both 
ofJetvs and (jctntiies inhiibiliiii; Smyrna, shouted with a great rage, " this 
is that Doctor of Asia, the lather of the Christians, the oveithrowcr of our 
Oods, who hath taught many, tliat our Gods are not to be adored." Then 
tfij^'v cried nith one voice, tliat Poiycarp should be burued quickly. 
Thrrejore tlie multitude forllnvilh carried logs of wood and sticks out ot* 
their shops a.-id booths. His hands beins; then bound to his back, he, fit 
ibr ao acceptable burnt acrifice unto Ahuiglity God, was offered saying : '"O 
Fatlier of .thy well beloved aiul blessed Son Jesus Christ, through whom we 
have kni>vvn theo : O God olthe ai!2;els aixi powers, and of every living crea- 
ture and of all sorts of just men \\>.n> bve in thy presf iw;«-, I thank thee that 
thou hast grciciously vouciisafed this day and this honr, to allot me a por- 
tion amoug lije nuinbei' of Martyrs, among the people of Christ, unto the 
resurreciw4LoLJii^ everlasting Ide. both of body and of soul, in the incor- 
rnption of the Holy Ghost, among whom I shall be received in Ctiy s'-glit 
this day, as a Iruitiul and acceptable sacrifice, j^s thfm hast heretofore 
prepared, oiten revtr^aled, and now fulfilled, most fait/iful God who canst 
no', lie. Wherefore tor ail things I praise thee, I bl ^s thee, I glorify 
thee. Ihrnjigh the everlasting High Priest, Jesus Christ thy well b< loved 
Son, to whom, with thee and the Holy Gnost, be ail glory, world without 
end, /\men." When be had pronounced tliis Anien, and finished his pray- 
er, the executioners set the pile on fire. The flame vehemently flashed 
about, framing iL'^elf after the form of a vault or sail of a ship with the 
blustering blasts of wind, compassed the body of the Martyr within placed, 
as with a wall.' and that which was in the midst of the same, seemed to 
our senses a fragrant and sweet smell, as of frankincMise, or some such 
like precious perfume. At length when the cruel persecutors perct^ived 
the fire not to consume his body, they called for a tormentor and gave 
him charge to lance hlin in the side with a spear : which when he had done, 
such a strecun of blood issued out of his body, that the fire was therewith 
quenched, so that the whole multitude marvelled. Theceuturion caused the 
body to be laid in the midst, after their accustomed manner, to be burned. 
Thus it happened unto PoSycarp that was martyred at Smyrna, together 
with twelve others out of Philadelphia. 

The servants of Christ, sQJourning in Vienne and Lyons in France, 
to the hre'hrpn in Asia Pi opria and Phrygia, nho have the same faith and 
hope of redemption jvith I's, peace and glory and grace from God the Father 
and Christ Jesus our Lord. 

We are not competent to describe with accuracy, nor is it in our power 
to express the greatness of the affliction sustained here by the saints, the 
intense animosity of the heathen against them, and the complicated suffer- 
ings of the blessed martyrs. The grand enemy assaulted us with all his 
might, and by his first essays exhibited intuitions of exercising malice 
without controui. He left no method nutried to habituate his slaves to his 
bloody work, and to prepare them by previous exercises against the ser- 
vants of God. Christians were absolutely piohibited from appearing in 
any houses, except their own, in baths, ja the market, or in any pla-^e 
whatever. The grace of God however fought for us, preserving the weak, 
and exposing the strong, who like pillars were able to withstand him in 

patience, and to draw the whole fury of the wicked against themselves. % 

These entered into the contest sustaining every species of paiuiind re- 
proach. W^hat was heavy to others, to them was light, while they were 
hasteaing to Christ, eyiacing indeed, that ♦* tha wifferin^s of this present 



10 APPENPIX', 

time are imt worthy to be conopared with the glorr that shall be reveakd 
in n> " The fir^t triaj was Irom the people at large; shouts, blows, the 
df iS'iMs o! i'.jieir bodies, the phnidering of their goods, casting of stones, 
ai . Ji> en ^fin ins: of them within their own houses, and all the iadiguilieg 
\V''!crt may -ie expected fiom a fierce and outrageoii'? multitude, these were 
mil . muvjously sustained. And now being led into the forum by the 
tribune and the magtstratss, they \Tere exanoined before al! the people, 
whethvr they were christians, and on pleading gnilly, were shut up in 
prison till the arrival of the governor. Before him they were at length 
brought, and he tr'^ated them with great savageness of manners. The 
spirit of VttLius Epagathus, one of the brethren was roused ; a man full of 
charily both to God and man, whose conduct was so exenaplary, though 
but a youtSe, that he might *)e justly compared to old Zacharias ; for ha 
walked in all the cornraandKients and ordinancfs of the Lord blameless, a 
man ever unwearied in acts ol beneficence to his neighbours, full of zeal to- 
w,!r.i5;God, and fervent in spirit. He conid not bear ta see so raanitest 
a perversion of ju tie« ; but being moved with indignation, he demanded 
to oe heard in behalf of ihe brethren, and pledged himself to prove that 
there was nothing atheistical or impious among them ; those about the tribu- 
nal shouting agaiost l.iin, for he was a man of quality, and the governor being 
impatient of so equitable a demand, and only asking him if he were a 
christian, and he confessing in the most open manner, the conseqijence 
was, that he wa« ranked among the martyrs. He was called indeed the 
advocatr of ?}i'^ christians ; but he had an advocate within, the 
Ht);v Spirit, more abmidantly than Zacharias, which he demonstrated 
b> the idness of hi« charity, cheerlulfy Jaying down h-s life in delence of 
bis brethren ; for h^- was, and is sfill a genuine disciple of Christ, following 
th- i^amb wMithersoever he goeth. The rest began now to be distinguished- 
T f ripit J maitvrs appeared indeed ready for the contest, and discharged 
tr^ir part witi» ail alacrity Of mind. Others appeared also unready, unex- 
er<.'i-ed. and as yet weak, unable to sustain the shock of such a contest: 
o' fhe<e. ten in number lapsed, whose case tilled us with great grief and 
unmi a«!i Able '^onow, and dejected the spirits of those who had not yet 
b > II appit hended ; who, though they sustained all indignities, yet deserted 
not il;e martyrs in their distress. Then we were ail much alarmed, be- 
cause of the unfertain event of confession, not that we dreaded the 
tonnents vvitti vvhicii vve were threatened, but because we looked forward 
unto th'^ f nd. and feared the danger of apostacy. Persons were now ap- 
prehended iiaiiy oi such as were counted worthy to fill up the number of the 
lapse., so that the most excellent were selected from the two cliUrches, 
even hose by whose labour they had been founded and established. 
Tiifre were seized at the same time some of our heathen servants, for the 
governor b.id openly ordered us all to be sought for, who by the impulse of 
Satan, itaring the torments which they saw inSicted on the saints, on the 
suggestion of the soldiers, accused us of eating humaa Sesh, and of unnatu- 
ral mixtures, and of things not tit even to be mentioned or imagined, 
an! such as ought not to be believed of mankind. These things being 
divulged, all were incensed even to madness against us ; so that if some 
were formerly more moderate on account of auy connections of blood, 
affinity or friendship, they were then transported beyond all bounds with 
indignation. Now it was that onr Lord's word was fulfilled, " the time 
will come when whosoever killeth you will think that hedoeth God service." 
The holy martyrs now sustained tortures wbicb exceed the powers of de. 
scription ; Sitao labouring by me ins of them, to extort something slander- 
ous to chri>tu;!ijty. Tiie whole fury of the multitude, the governor and 
the soldiers, was spent in a particular oaauaer on Sanctus of Vienne, the 



APPENPIX. 11 

ileaeoii, and oa Maturus, a I\te convert iodeed, but a ii>a3,naiv5mous 
wrestler, and on Attains of Per^amus, a man who had cvtT been the 
pillar and support ot our thurch, and o.i Blandina, tbrou2;h v^hoio Chi ist 
shewed, that those things that appear unsightly and coatemptihle araoHg 
men, are most hononrable in the presence ol God, on a<'t'Ofiut of love to 
liis name exhibited in real energy, and not boasting in pomuous pretences. 
For tvhile «e all feared, and among the rest her mistress accord ins to the 
ilesli, IierseU'one oftlie noble army oi"m;irtyrs, uas airaid that she would 
not be able to witness a good confession, because of The weakness of her 
body, Blandina was endued with so much fortitude, that those who succes- 
sively toitured her from morning to night, were quite worn out wiih fatigue, 
and owned themselves conquered and exhausted of their whole apparatus 
of tortures, and were amazed to see her still breathing, whilst her body 
was torn and laid open, and confessed that one sp'^cies of torture had been 
sufficient to despatch lier. mndi more so great a variety as had been appled. 
But the blessed woman, as a generous wrestler, recovered fresh vigour in 
the act of confession ; and it was an evident refresh:nent, support, and an 
anniliilation of all her pains to say, " I am a chrbtiwi, and no evil is com- 
•tnitted among iis.** 

In the mean time Sanctas, having sustained in a miniier more than 
human, the most barbarous indignities, while ths impious hoped to extort 
something from him injurious to the gospel, from too duration and intense- 
ness of his sufferings, resisted with so much firmness that he would neither 
tell his own name nor that of his nation or state, nor whether he was a 
freejfian or a slave ; but to every interrogatory he answered in Litin, " lam 
a c/iris/ia?i." I'his he repeatedly owned ivas to him both name, and state, 
and race, and every thing; and nothing else, could the heathen draw from 
him. Hence the indignation of the governor and torturers was fiercely 
levelled against him, so that having exhausted all the usual mi-thods of tor- 
ture, they at last fixed brazen plates to the most tender parts of his b{»d>. 
These were scorched of course, and yet he remained upright and iuQ- xible, 
firm in his confession, being bedewed and refreshed from the heavenly foun- 
tain of the water of liie. His body witnessed indeed the ghastly torttues 
which he had sustained, being one continued wound and bruise, alto- 
gether contracted and no longer retaining the Ibrm of a human creature ; 
in whom Christ suffering wrought great wonders, confounding the adversary, 
and siiewing for the encouragement of the rest, that nothing is to be feared 
where the love of the Father is : nothing painful where the glory or Christ 
is exhibited. For while the impious imagined, when after some days they 
renewed his tortures, that a fresii application of {hv. same methods of pun- 
ishment to his wounds, now swollen and inflamed, must either overcome 
his constancy, or by despatching him on the spot, strike a terror into the 
rest, as he could not even bear to be touciied by the hand, this was so far 
jVom being the case, that contrary to all expectation, his body recovered 
its natural position in the second course of toitiire ; he was restored to his 
former shape and the use of his limbs; so tliat by the grace of Christ, it 
proved not a punisiiment but a cure ! 

Biblias, a woman who had denied Christ, was led to the torture, and 
though at first she accused the christiiins of horrid impieties, yet in the 
midst of her tortures, being admonisiied, by a temporary punishment of 
the danger of etGrnal fire in hell, she recovered from her aposlaey, pro- 
fessed herself a christian, and was added to the army of martyrs. 

Many christians were thrust into the darkest and mjst noisome parts of 
the prison, where they suffered all the indignities which diabolical malice 
could inflict. Many were suffocated. Others though grealiy afflicted, 
remained alive, strengthened by the Lord, and comforted and encouraged 
one another to coKstancj in the christian iailU. 



II 



12 APPENDIX. 

Pothlnas, bislinp of Lyons, upwards oi' ni nets years of ^g;e, very infirm 
and asthmatic, panting after martyrdom was called to suffer. After a 
great variety of abuse, both from tiie populace and th-e magistrates he was 
thrown into prison and after two days expired. 

Those who bad denied Christ, were not by their denial of him exempt from 
persecution. But in their sufierings, they had not the supports, which others 
who stood firm In the taith, ex{>crtenced. They went to execution VTith 
jtuilt depicted in their countenaj>ces, dejected, spiritless and forlorn. 
The heathen insulted tbeui as cowards and poltroons, and treated them as 
murderers : thus seeking to save their lives they lost them, and tailed 
of rteeiving the consolations of the religion which they had renounced. 

The heathen denied the rites of interment to those who suffered mar- 
tyrdom. Alter having treated them with many indignities, they burnt 
them to ashes, and to prevent their resurrection, and to deter others irom 
the hope of a future liie, cast their ashes into the river Rhone ; adding. 
•' Now let us see if they will rise again, and if their God can help them and 
deliver them out of our hands." 

ThefoUoiving biographical notice, is Un JppendJx to the first section 
of Lecture If^. Page 70. 

Pamphihis was born at Berytus about the year 294. Having made Sf^me 
progress in literature in his native city, he went to Alexandria to com- 
plete his studi> s ; thence he removed to Caesarea where he resided the 
greatest part of las life, which was the principal witness of his glorious 
Oareer. He had not dwelt long at Caesarea before his piety and christian 
virtues shone so vigorously, as to lead the church of that place to elect him 
as one of its Presbyters. Here it was that he formed that intimate friendship 
with Eusebius, the Ecclesiastical Hi'^toriao, which ran parellel with life, 
and which caused thera to concentrate their forces in opposini; the blind 
superstition of Paganism, and in disseminating the knov ledge of Christianity 
throughout the sphere of their exertion. 

One interesting part oi the character of Pamphilus undoubtedly consisted 
in his attachment to Biblical literature. Of this we have several valid 
testimonies; '• Pamphilus had," says Jerome, *' such an affection for a 
divine or ecclesiastical library, that he wrote out with his own hand the 
greatest pert ot Origen's works, which are still in the library of Caesarea ; 
and besiiies i ha\e met," adds he, " with twenty-five volumes of Origen's 
Commentary upon the Prophets in his own hand writing, which I vahie 
and keepa< though I had the riches of Crcesus." The same writer quotes 
Eusebius as saying that Pamphilus "diligently read the works of the ancient 
authors, and continually meditated upon them." 

Tl'e Caesarian library which Jerome takes notice of, was founded by 
PaRiphilus himself. Isidore of Seville informs us, that it contained no 
less than 30.000 volumes. By this information we are at once taught that 
Pamphilus must have possessed vast pecuniary resources, and an ambition 
to consecrate them entirely to the welfare of the disciples of the Redeemer ; 
for we have full authority to atiirm. that this collection of books was made 
merely for the use of the church ; and to lend to those who were desirous 
of being instructed in the grand principles ol' Christianity. And this is as 
Dr. A. Clark observes, 'the first notice we have of a circulating library 
being established.' Nor was the benevolent and philanthropic spirit of 
this emirent man to be less admired. His hand was always opened for the 
relief oi the necessitous, and his heart ever ready to sympathize with the 
miserable. If he saw any erabarrased in their temporal affairs, he gave 
bountifully of his substance to relieve tbem. He devoted a considerable 



« 



APPENDIX. 13 

portion of his? property to tbesr; rharitab!e piirpor.es, and lived liimsplf JQ 
the most ab>tei!)ious inmner, to render his ability the greater. One ofth^ 
moninTU'ots of his Ijem volence was lite school vvliich lie cstablislie<l at Cas- 
parea, iort'ie !ree edocatiou of youth. No materials remain to enable us to 
give iho \ucm or state the success of this academy ; but. that there was a 
con.^idf rabie one formed by his s^eneroHty, is attested by the unitecj 
authorities ol Cave, Fabins, and Tiliemont. 

But the most jirominc nt featu'-e in the character of Pair.philiis, doubt- 
less, wiis his stono; attachment to ' the oracles of God,' and his earnest 
endeavours to propag.ito them In the accomplishment of this noble design, 
all the energies ol his mind were unite<l, and his labours were indcfatigabje. 
* He not only lent out.' says Ensebius, ' copies of the sacred Scriptures 
to be read, but cheerfully g-Ave them to be kept by those whom he tound 
disposed to rea(i them ; lor whicii reason he took care to have by him 
many copies of'thc Scripture*;, some of which were transcribed with hia 
own hand, that when there should be occasion he might furnish those who 
were wiijjns to make nst. oitlu^m' Such was the employment, and such 
were the delights of this amiable man i Is it not to be wished (hat many 
wlio possess, perh'ips, as «:rea' an ability for action, were aimino; at as 
graul an object as Pamphihis ? But another fact, illustrative of this part 
of his ci)aructer, is too notorious to be passed over, through his 
having published by the assistance ofEusebius, a correct edition of the 
Septuasinit from Oriijen's Hexapla. Unfoubtediv, this was of j>€culiar 
advantage to the church of Christ ; the benefit ol Origcn's immense labour 
was rendered more extensive ; and if tiiis edition was not the first separate 
one, it was certainly the most exact. This was called the Palestine edi- 
tion ; and was in genaral use from Anlioch to Egypt, as that of Lucian 
was from Autioch to Constantinople, and that of Hesychius in Egypt. 

But a character so active it! the divine cause of Christianity, and likely 
to <io so much injury u) Pas^an superstition, could not expect to pasB 
through the woiid tie-' *rom per-^ < ution. ' A city set upon a hi!) cannot 
ifae hid.' A glow worm m .y be seen but by lew ; but a star is exposed to 
thcsiihtofill B it altJiough Pamphilus must have been well aware of 
the itangers to which his exertions exposed him in such a period of severe 
persn-.eulion, yet the intrepidity of his mind and the goodness of his cause, 
fau^ht liim to brave all opposition, attd to relinquish his usefulness only 
wit ■ his life! H? "vas irequenily brought before the civil tribunal, and as 
freqiiently he witnessed 'a good conliession.' On these occasions, the 
eraineocy of his station, and the p.irity of his character proved a temporary* 
refuge ; but at length he was broight before Urbanus, who ' having first 
made.' says Eusebsus, • trial of his knowledge by divers questions oi' 
rhetoric v».ad philosophy, as ivell as of polite literature, required him to 
sacrifice. When he saw that Pamp'dlus refused to obey his orders, and 
desp.sed ail his threatenings, he coram ided that he should be tortured ia 
the severest manner. When he had agaiii and again torn his sides with hia 
toraienting irons, the cruel wretch, being as it were satiated with bis flesh, 
though he had gained not' ' >? o;r' y^v-tjoQ and dishonour, ordered him to 
coafiuemeot in prison ' Aite. havii.g iain in this dungeon for a year and 
some months, he Has Cr'.lled to receive the croivn of martyrdom, and thu9 
to seal by his death, those truths which it had been his chief concern to- 
propagate by his life. 

How many pleasing riBflections does the contemplation of such a character 
afford us ! 

1. How Tastly sup><i'r is Christianity to Paganism, and to all other 
systems ! Have we . ^in beheld its high supremacy in point of TAcon/,— 
here we may behold its iiifinite superiority in point of Ivjinence] In 



14 APPENDIX. 



ei 



Pamphilus we see an individual consecrating all his property fof the fel 
of the necessities oi" the poor ; exerting al! the powei^ of his mind in re- 
moving the ifieutal darJsuess of mankind, and in proinotiiii th'ir best inte- 
rests; disregarding all the honours of the world, ai»d reiiiiq us.sing (-very 
thing which was counter to his benevolent purpose ; all this he dul f cm 
the purest naotives, and without noise and ostentatian ; and at N^t he 
cheerfully resigned his life rather than disoivn those prinoipies by which he 
had hitherto been conducted. — Ciiristianity defies Heatlieuism to give 
;;uchan instance of puie benevolence. 

2. What an excitement shoud such an example be to modern Christians ! 
Did Pamphilus manifest au unconqa.;rable attachment to the Holy Scrip- 
tures ? Did he act so extensively tor trnth, and etfect so much jcood in 
opposition to ai! the difficulties which then presented themselves ? Was 
he ' steady to his purpose,' under all the opposition he had to cope with ? 
Did be devote all he possessed to the service of so glorious an irstetest ? — 
and shall not we " go and do likewise ?" Shall we be content by merely 
admiring his conduct, without treading in his steps ? 

VJI. Page 72. The origin of Councils, from Mosheivi. 

<» During a great part of the second century, the churclics were indepen- 
dent of each other ; nor were they joined together by association, confede- 
racy or any other bonds but those of charity. Each assembly was a little 
state <yov'erned by its own laws ; which were either enacted, or at least 
approved of, by the society. But in process of time, all the christian, 
churches of a provinee were formed into one large ecclesiastical body ; 
which like confederate states, assembled at certain limes, in order to 
deliberate about the common interests of the whoii\ This .institution had 
its orio^in among the Greeks ; but in a s jort time it became tmiversal ; lud 
similar' asserabUes were formed in all places where the gospel bad been 
planted. These assemblies, which consisted of the deputies from several 
churches were called Synods by the Greeks, and Councils by the Latins ; 
and the laws enacted ia these general meetings were called canons, that is, 
rules. These councils, of which we find not the smallest trace before 
the middle of the second century, changed the face of the whole church, 
and gave it a new form ; for by them the ancient privileges of the people 
were considerably diminished, and the power and authority of the bishops 
fl-reatly augmented. The humility indeed, and the prudence of these 
pious prelates, hindered them from assuming all at once, the power uith 
which they were afterwyds invested. At their first appearance in these 
general councils, they acknowledged that they were uo more than the 
delet^ates of their respective churches ; and tliat they acted in the name 
and by the appointment of their peoplt. But they soon changed this 
humble tone ; imperceptibly extended the limits of their authority; tur- 
ned their influence into dominion, and their counsels into laws ; and 



at length openly asserted, that Christ had empowered them to prescribe 
to his people authoritative rules of faith and manners ." 

VIIL Page 124. Relics. 

Among other circuaistances of this kind upon record, the following 
will amply exhibit the true nature and extent of the superstitious excesses 
then so prevalent and uni^'ersal. The possession of one of a firtitious 
Viro-in's teeth called St. Apollonia, was proclaimed to be an infallible 
preservative against aU the complaints incident to the gums, and a ceitaiu 
antidote both to the decaj and loss of the teeth. Nothing less than that 



APPENDIX. 15 

;vhlch happened could have been an'kipated. At first one tooth only 
was to he found raost solemnly drposited and most sacredly guarded in the 
uU^ior^t ma<«;niiicen«;e in some principal and very distant Cathedral; hot in a 
short tiitK ttii.y ind been so multiplied ijy miracles, as the Monks and Friars 
who soTi them impudently vociferated, that every person who could 
afford the prie.' oi so inc slimal'le an amidet, wore one appended to his neck. 
One of lh( Bisl.ops, vvhetin-r Iroin envy at the gains, to make an exposure 
or the rocu» I V by an experiment; or from christian indignation at this^ 
illusive mu.'iimery. to ridicule its sil!ines«, directed, that all the owners of 
the saint's genuint ttelh within his dioeess, should deposit them under bis 
pateniaj c:^r^ prior ti some specitied day. At the time appoiuted, the 
mass wits measureo, and in one small district only, to the Saint «a appro- 
priated no less than three bushels of Teeth, including the tenants of the 
mouth wkieh appertain V all the usual domestic animals. This discovery 
ric-troyed all coiifirJence in the Saint and her relics, and the culling of 
teeth was displaced lor some other absurdity, not less contemptible in the 
ininlualtd devotee, and n«t less profitable to the depraved and artful 
Moiili, 

IX. Page 196. Eclics and False Miracles. 

The cheat of pretended Relics is well known : for whereas Baronins 
confesses there were not above four nails of the cross in all, they produce 
several hundreds of them. And because they know they can be bold with 
the silly people, the Archbishop of Mentz bragged that he had the 
Flame oi the Bush that Muses beheld burnins: : and a Leg of the Ass on 
whici: Christ rode into Jerusalem was given by a Priest of Rome to a 
Dutc it'in. Most of the Romish saints are a cheat, and they do but blush 
in tht K» d Letters in the Calendar. And some of those who have the 
gloiious title of Saints bestowed upon them, scarcely deserve the name of 
Men. But what said the Cardinal Legate when he came to bestow his 
blessing upon the peopL that came to see him, and when he took notice 
ol theii biiik; devotion and bigotry ? Ij the people will be deceived, let 
them be dectived, in God's Name. Tiiey were pleased with the cheat, 
and II is not to be questioned that he was so too. 

St. Anthony , yon must know, has a great command over fire, and a 
power of destroying by flashes of that element, those who incur his displea- 
sure.— A certain monk oi St, Anthony, one day assembled his congregation 
under a tree, where a m spie had built her nest, into which he found 
means to convey a small box filled with gunpowder, and out of the box 
hung a long thin match that was to burn slowly, and was hidden among 
the leaves of the tree. As soon as the monk or his assistant bad touched 
the match with a lighted coal, he began Ids sermon. In the meanwhile, 
the magpie returned to her nest, and finding in it a strange body which she 
Could not remove, she fell into a passion, and began to scratch with hei* 
feet and to chatter most unmerciiully. The friar affected to hear her 
without emotion, and continued his sermon with great composure ; only 
he would now and then lif* up his eyes towards the top of the tree, as if 
he wanted to see what was the matter. At !ast, when he judged the 
match was near reaching the gunpowder, he pretended to be quite out of 
patience ; he cursed the magpie, and wished St. Anthony's fire might 
consume her, and went on again with his sermon ; but had scarcely pro- 
nounced two or three periods, when the match on a sucden produced its. 
efiects, and blew up the magpie with its nest ; which miracle wonderfully 
raised the character of the Ffitri and proved afterivards Tery beneficial to 
him and to his conveat. 



1 S APPENDIX. 

ThefdloTving is an Appendix to the third section cf Lecture XL Page 20? 

TnE AWFUL CONSEQUENCES OF Papal influence and Papal doMinioi:. 

Prnh Dolnr ! hos tolerare potest Ecclesia Porcos 
DuiUaxat F'entri, Veneris Sornnoquc, vacantcs ^ 

Have you never seen a Drone possess at ease 
What roould pwvide/or ten industrious Bees ? 

It is amazing that the Christian rei/gion, whose characteristic is love and 
humility, should be solar debased, as to carry no other mariis than those 
of cruelty and pride; that vows of poverty should entitle men to the 
riches of the whole world ; that professions of chastity should fdl countries 
with uneleaniiess ; that solitary Anchorites should engross the pomps of 
the city ; and that the servant of servants should become the king of 
kings ! but what contradictions are not designing men capable of, when 
Ibe enlargement of their power is in view ? It was with this view 
that auricular confessions were introduced ; that a new hell of purgatory 
was invented; and the power of creating even their own God, was blas- 
phemously assumed. By these arts, came the secrets of families into the 
bands of the priests; by these arts, they seized on the purses of whole 
nations ; and by these arts they arrived to be idols of the people, who 
were glad to part with their estates, with their liberties, and their senses 
too, to these spiritual usurpers. 

Not to mention the follies of other nations, British chronicles can 
ini'orm us to what a degree bigotry had once prevailed, of which let this 
instance suffice: John Bab, an author of unquestioned fidelity, who 
Kas himself a Carmelite Iriar, informs us, in his acts of English Votaries, 
that in the year 1017, king Canute, by the superstitiotis <»ounsel of Achel- 
rotus, then Archbishop of Canterbury, was prevailed upon to believe that 
monks' bastards were his own children, and that Fulbertus, the old Bishop 
of Carnote in France, was even then suckled by the Virgin Mary: not* 
did he stop here, but after having burdened the land with the payment of 
thatjlomish tribute called Peter's pence, he <vent to Winchester, where, 
by the aforementioned Bishop's advice, he formally resigned his regal 
crown to an image, constituting it then king of England ! 

Thus was a mighty king converted to be the tool of his Priests, and 
thereby became the darling of the Church, whose practice then was, not 
only to feed upon the spoils of the people, but even to make their mon- 
arch a prey to their ambition And hi those times a prince acquired the 
title of good or bad, not from his conduct in the secular government of 
bis subjects, but according as he was either more or Itss^' a promoter of 
the grandeur of his clergy. Thus Canute, though an usurper and a tyrant 
could merit a canonization; whilst king John, from whom was received 
that great security oftneir liberties, the Statute of Magna Charta, merely 
for not encouraging the corruptions and spiritual tyranny of the Romish 
Church, was branded with the name of Apostate, aud forced at lenjith, by 
an usurping Priesthood, to hold his crown as tributary to the see of Rome. 
When the kings where thus managed, it is no wonder that the laity Ibllowed 
their example submitting their necks to the same priestly yoke. 

The reader will no doubt, be curious to know, bow the spiritual so- 
cieties came to possess such prodigious temporal esbates ; for the amount 
of the properly owned by the monks, prior to the Reformation, included 
from fourteen to seventeen parts out of twenty of the whole land of the 
difiereut nations. The first mocks we read of \Tcrein the middle of the 



APPENDIX. 17 

thir<] century ; men wiiotn (he persecution of the heathen emperors com- 
pelltti to live in fleserts, and nho bein;:; by a long course of solitude, ren- 
dered unfit (or human society, cliose to coutiniic in their mouastic way, 
even after the irnc cause of it ce.iscd. 

The example of these men was soon followed by a number of criizy devo- 
tees, '.vho were so ignorant of true religion, a> to think that th( ir way 
to heaven lay (hrough wild and uninhabited deserts, and who, finding 
triat they had not chanty enough to observe the precept of Christ, of 
*' loving (heir neighbour as themselves." were resolved to have no 
neighbours at aM ; thereby fmvtrating the design of Christianity, which 
was to establish the gootl of society. 

The next monks were a set of worthless, but ambitious wretches, who, 
having no way of makiug Ihein'^elves famous in the world, retired ont of it ; 
where they reverenced idle ceremnni< > of tlieir owji institution, where they 
pretended conferences with angeN, wit!) the Virgin ■\Iary, and even with 
God Almighty ; not unlike IVuma, the high-priest of the heathen Romish 
church, who abused the people with stories of his nightly interviews in a 
cave with the goddess xEgeria. At length, these holy cheats, to gain yet 
more veneration, began to practice on their bodies the most cruel severities, 
till at last they were worshipped by tho thoughtless mob as saints : imitating 
in some measure, the example oi'tliat heathen monk, Frapedocles, who, 
to be thought a God, leapt into the burning mount ^tna. 

Atter this, designing men, who saw how great an influence these preten- 
ded Saints had over mankind, took upon themselves the same exterior form 
of godliness, thereby not only to raise an empty name, as the former had 
done, but to enrich themselves at the expence of the deluded multifnde. 
Fiom hence flowed those many profitable religious maxims: — "^that to 
give to the Church, was charity towards God, and as such, would atone 
for a multitude of sins, were they ever so heinous . — that the church was 
not the congregation of the faithful, as St. Paul fancied it to be, but the 
body ot the priests; — that the priest, though ever so like the devil, was 
God's representative, and aught to be honoured as such : — that there was 
stich a place as purgatory, and that the pravers of the monks like Orpheus' 
harp, was the only music that couid moliily the tyrant of that place who 
being their very good fi iend, would release a poor soul at any time for 
their sake : — that* whispering all secrets in the ear of a priest, was the only 
euro for a sick soul : — that every priest had the power of pardoning all sins 
except those only which were committed against himself: — that indulgen- 
ces purchased in fee, could entitle a man atid his heirs to meiit heaven by 
sinning : — and lastly, that the priest could by virtue of a hocus pocus, 
^iiit scores with his Creator by creating him." These, and such like 
nioney-catching tenets, soon drew the whole wealth of the laity into the 
hands of these contemners of the world, and all its pomps and vanities ; 
who not only flourished in Kjiypt and Italy, where they first sprang up, but 
were spread through ai! Cliristendom, and began qnickiy to vie in pow-er 
and riches with the greatest monarchs, even in their own territories, till 
at last, kings and pnnces themselves, were proud of becoming monks and 
abbots. 

A minute detail of the divers religions orders which swarmed in all parts 
of Europe is unnecessary, as the portraiture of those who devoured and 
consumed Britain will exhibit a correct specimen of the whole fraternity. 

The Benedictines. — The first of these that prevailed, was the order of 
the Benedictines, whose rule was introduced into Britdiu by Augustin the 

* There is a beast mentioned by Pliny ^ ivhose bite can only be cured by 
whiipering in the ear of an ass. 

3 



18 



APPENDIX. 



monk, in (hfi year 59G. Thf> fonnffer of this order' vra« St. Bcnnet. who 
in his own life time eiecicd twelve monasteries. The rules that this great 
saint left belrnd liim, aUhungh the papist* affirm that they were dictated to 
him by the H:)iy Gno^t, are stuO^'^d with the most trifling and isnperstitions 
ceremonies ; and his whole scvcntv-tluee chapters contain but four Avhole- 
some precepts, two ot winch only, ibat relate to eating and drinking, 
his io.I!owers observe ; neglecting the other two, which are the fuadamen- 
lals of their oder. enjoining humility and poverty; lor in bis seventh 
chapter, St Bennet assigns twelve de;ree« of humility for his monks to 
practice: which how well they comply with, ynu may find by the humble 
titles of the abbots of Moiiat Cassia, the head monaster} of his order, of 
which himself was first absot. 

The titles of the abbots ot Mount Cassin,—*' Patriarch of the Sacred 
Religion, Abbot of the Sacred Monastery of Mount Cassin, Duke and 
Prince of all Abbots and Religions, Vice Chancellor of the kingdom of both 
the Sicilies, of Jerusaleoj, of HiUigaria, Count and Governor of Campania, 
and Terra de Lavoro. and of the Maritime Province, Vice Fmperor, and 
Prince of Peace." In his fifiy ninth chapter, the same saint enjoins pov- 
erty to all bis disciples ; find ,n obedience to this ride, the above mention- 
ed monastery of Mount C-as-Jiii so i enounced the world, as to be possessed 
but of " four bishoprieks. tr o d: fe '.^ms. tv ct.ty counties, thirty six cities. 
two hundred castles, three hunched territoiies, four hundred and forty 
TiUases, three hundred and six farms, twenty three seaports, thirty three 
islands, two but,dr» d mills, and one thousand six hundred and sixty two 
chu'che- " This was their holy poverty ; and thus you m ly see how reli- 
giously these ten rules have been obssrven, and how spiritually the follow- 
ers of. ^t. Bennet retreated from the world in Italy ; who were soon iaii- 
tated iasomc of these kinds of holy selfdenlils, by their pious brethren in 
England, as you may learn from the vast numbers of rich abbeys which the 
Beiediccines were possessed of. These were the humble priests from whom 
King Henry II. received the discipline of eighty lashes, for having like 
an jndutiiul son of the church, dared to contend in power with their patron 
Thomas a B;ecket, whose stirrup he had been obliged to hold, whii4 that 
meek Prelate mounted. 

As these monks began to be notorious to the world for their obscenities 
and luxnr\ ; in the year 9 12, Oden Abbot of Cluny, took upon idm to 
correct their abuses, and gave rise to the CInniac« : who were the sairic 
year tianslated by Alphreda, dneen of England , for who more proper to 
promote superstition than a zealous ignorant woman ! However, to shew 
how Ihoroug'dy these men reformed upon St. Bennet's followers, especially 
in point ol humility, they wre not settled one whole century, before the 
Abbot of Cluny contested the title of Abbot of Abbots with those of Mount 
Cassin. 

The next order was that of the Carthusians, first established in the yeai 
idSG. in the desert of Chartreuse in (irenoble, by one Bruno, who 
was thereunto moved by hearing a dead man cry out three times, "That 
he ivas coodemiied by the just judgment of God ;" which was a very plain 
precept for building monasteries ! This man professed to follow the rule 
of St. Bennet, adding thereunto many great austerities by way of 
reformation ; amongst others he ordained, that they ought to be satisfied 
with a very little space of ground about their cells, after which, let the 
whole world be offered unto them, they ought not to desire a foot more. 
This, I suppose, they have construed to signify a foot more than the whole 
world: for their cells, even in St. Bernard's time, became stately palaces, 
and their little spaces of ground, stretched themselves into great tracts of 
land. Thej fiist settled themselves in England io the year 1180, and ia 



f 



APPENDIX. 



19 



a very short time Imd gaiucd as imich vveaK'j Uy tijeir vows of poverty as 
;iny other order. 

The Cisteiciaiis, so calleii from Citeaiix, where they first assembled, 
aii(i soon after addiitted St. Bernard for their head. Iron) vvhence they are 
styled Bernardines, were anotlier relonnatiots upon the Benedictines. 

St. Bernard liimseifiounded one hundred and >«i?.:ty monasteries; who 
at tirst would have no possessions, bnl lived by alms, and the labour of 
their own hands ; which being too apostolic a iife for monks, they soon 
grew as weary of poverty and industry as their neighhonrs; and in a little 
time rivalled those, upon whom they pretended to referm, in weaUlj, lux- 
ury, wantonness, and such like monkish virtues. At their first institution, 
they wore black monkish habits, till the Viri^in Mary, out of her great 
love to these fat friars, came down from heaven on purpose to reform Uieir 
dress, as being the most essential put of Ibcir order. She appeared her- 
self to their second abbot, btinging a while co»v! in her hand, which she 
put upon his bead, and at the same insiant, the cowls of all Ihe u)onks 
then singing in the choir, were ndraculoiisly turned to the same colour. 
Thus did llie Blessed Virgin change tiie habits of the Cistercians from black 
to white, as they had before altered their lives, from a sad melancholy 
retirement, to a merry jovial society , black being no more (it for a jolly 
priest, than white is ibr a nicurnlul penitent. Besides, tiic old monk S.4taii 
being represented as black, the Holy Virgin was unwiliing perhaps, tiiat 
her friends sS.ould be like him in drej;s, thoiigli they resembled him in every 
thing else. These locusts swarmed first in England, about the year 1132, 
and continued there in the innocent exercis.; of their sanctity ; a remark able 
instance of which was their poisoning of king John at Swir.eghead in Lin- 
colnshire, an abbey of the holy Cistercian order. 

There was another sort of religious oider in the chnrch ol Rome, who 
ivere callee Canons. These were ta live in common, and to have but 
one table, one purse, and one dormitory. But as many of them began to 
abate of the strictness of their first rn!es, a iiew sect sprang up, that pre- 
tended to reloim upon the rest, and these were called Regular, whereas 
the other by way of reproach, were styled Secular. They all pretended 
to have received three rules from St. Augustine, two of wi;ich, Erasmus 
and Hospinlan proved to be forgeries, and affirm, that tiie third was not 
written ibr his clergy, but for tiie use ol' some pious women, who lived 
in comaion nndei" th" conduct oihis sister. When Canons began, is not 
certain ; but the fir-t Regulars we read of, are thoie whom Pope Alexander 
11. seat from Lucca to St. John Lateran. The Regular Canons were so 
irregular, and guilty of such abominable crimes, that even Pope Boniface 
VIII. was force ! to drive them away, and for the ptace of the church, to 
place SecJiiar Canons in their roo n. Beriners in the year 636. nrst intro- 
duced these .lugustinians into England, vvho stiictiy followed tiie example 
of their brethren of St. John Lateran. 

The Prasmonstratenses, who lollowed the same rule with the former, 
were founded by St. Norbert, about the year 1120. at a place which the 
Blessed Virgin pointed out to him, and which therefore was Fre-monstre, 
or foresbewn. These monks, to gei; a greater esteem in the world alter 
the death of their founder, published, that he hat! received his rule, curi- 
ously bound in gold, from the bands of St. Austin himself, who appeared 
to him one night, and said thus ; *' Here is tije rule that i have written, 
and if my bietinen observe it, they like my chiidi-en, need to fear nothing 
at all in the day of judgment." Indeed these pious iaihers, Ibr their great 
security in the last day, have firmly adhered to one of his pr^n-epts. that 
corbmands thera to Jove one aiiotiier. What confirms this suspicion is, 
their declaration in the year 1273 ; in. w.hich, after having acknowledged 



20 



APPENDIX. 



that womeo are ivorse than the most venomous; aspicks and dragons, li;c7 
resolved never to have any ino«e to do with them. 

The next order is that of St. Gilbert, a little crooked schoolmaster, 
born in Lincolnshire, who by leason ot" his deforroity, desjtaiting tobriug 
the women to answer his ie.vd inclinations in a secniar jnanner, was re- 
solved to make religion subservient to his purposes; and to this end hK 
founded thirteen monasteries, contait-ing both sexes together, to the num- 
ber of seven hundred men, and (itteen Ijundrcd women. This order of the 
Gilbertines, was established at Sempringham, in the year 1148, and was 
thence called the iSempringhauj order; but the disgusting characteristics 
exhibit such an outrage on common decency, that delicacy conjpels us 
to suppress further particulars. 

Tiie Mathurines so called from their founder John Matha, were like- 
wise stiied Trinitarians, because they lay under an obligation of dedicating 
all tbeiv churches to the holy Trinity ; tiiey professed the rules of St. 
Austin, and added to them several others ; smoogst which is that remark- 
able one of riding upon an ass, the only thing in which I can find these 
godly fathers imitate Christ. They were instituted in the year 1207, and 
settled in England in the year 12.57. The professed original design of their 
establishment, was lor the enlargement of captives ; and whatsoever subs- 
tance ieli into tlieir hands, was to be divided into three equal parts, one 
of which vvas to he remitted to christian slaves for their redemption, 
whilst the other two were to remain in possession oi these charitable bankers, 
as a satislaction ior their great pains in making such a return, which a 
merciful Jew would have done more faithfully, and for a tenth part of the 
reward. But two parts in three being too scanty a recompence for the 
great toil of a iazy friar, these Mathurines, having no other God but money, 
to approve themselves true I'rinitarians to that deity, often cheated the 
poor captive of his third part, rather than they would divide the substance. 
This was the ceremony of the Ass. — In several churches in France, in 
early ages they celebrated a festival in coiTiusemoration of the Virgin 
Mary's flight into Egypt. It was called the Feast of the Ass. A young 
girl richly dressed, nith a child in her arms, was set upon an ass superbly 
caparisoned. The ass vvas led to the altar in solemn procession. High 
Mass was said in great potnp. The ass was taught tokneel in proper 
places; a hymn no less c!iiluish than iinpious, wassun.g in his piaise ; and 
when the ceremony was ended, the {)riest. instead of the usual words with 
which he dismissed the peopli, brayed tlu'ee times like an ass ; and the 
people, instead of their usual response, we bless the Lord, brayed three 
times in the same manner. 

This ridiculous ceremony was not, like the festival of fools, and some 
oth^r pageants of those ages, a mere farcical entertainment exhibited in a 
chnrcli, and mingled as was then the custom, with an imitation of some 
religious rites. It was an act ofdevo=ion performed by the ministers of 
religion, and by the authority of the church. 

These eight religious orders grasped the greater part of the property hi 
England. Four other monkish tribes held no possessions of their own, but 
being like the frogs in Egypt in numbers and ubiquity, virtually were 
masters of the island, as it was deemed a crime equal (o sacrilege, to deny 
them admission to any place which they condescended to honour with 
their presence. 

The Franciscans or Grey Friars, were instituted in the year 1206, by 
St Francis, whose first prank of holiness was robbing his father, for 
which pious act, being disinherited, he, like a true ranter, stript himself 
start naked, and ran away to a chape! near Assisy ia Urabria, where being 
a beggar huiiaelf, he began a begging order ; which being founded on 



APPENDIX. 21 

sloth and idioness, drew in so many converts, that St. Frantis, evrn in 
Jjis lile lime, saw two thousand convents of his own monks, all mumpejs, 
gypsies, vagrants, and such like persons, taking upon him his protession 
ol sanclity, which agreed so vveli with their own inclinations. It wore 
enalJ^;•i iieie to eiiUiicrate those many ndicnlons and blasphemous miracks 
ivith which his lym^ legend is filled; such as the bearing the raaiks ol Christ 
upon his body, winch were imp/ inted there by Christ himseli' ; snch as 
his conversing intimately with the Virgin Mary ; snch as bis healing the 
lame and blind, nay, and even raising the dead to life. Miracles, upon 
the strcngUi oi' which, his blind iollowers have not hesitated to publish 
him grealer than John the Baptist, and all the apostles, and to affirm that 
a roll IVom iieavcn declared him to be the '* Grace of God." Nay, they 
have not been asham'-a to call him Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jew s." 
Relying upon the sincerity of Uie author of his legend, 1 mean Lucifer, 
\yhose seat lids great saint tills in licavetJ, who being once abjured by :i 
priest, answered, tiiat " there were only two men marked alike, Christ and 
St. Francis." 

The Domniicans or Black Friars, took their rise in the year 121G, frora 
that Godly iitucher St. Dojrwuick, whose cathobck zeal was iirst manifes- 
ted in the barbarous cioisade which he set on foot against those innocent 
people ihe Aibigenses, of whom above one Iiundre.d thousand were massa- 
cred at oac., by '.his saint's instigation; for at a smaller price of blood 
he could not hope to purchase a canonization in a church, which was so 
wesi stocked with such kind of saints before. To give yet a farther instance 
oi ;;i, Chrisiian charsty, when he saw how the number of heretics was dimi- 
nished by his wliolesome severities, like a true high-church champion, he 
lisLca nilo his ordt i a set of merciless ruffians, whom he styled the miiitia 
of jesti Ciirist ; whose employment was to cut the throats of all those 
w^ho rtcre so srhismatical as to dissent from him in opinion. It was he aho 
who iouiuied thai mercilul court of justice, called the Inquisition, nor did 
be ,vdnL i' If uuiacles anymore than his brother St. Francis: for though he 
had .10 sacjii bodily marks, yet he received the Holy Ghost with the same 
gloiy 01 a flaming tongue as the apostles did; and whereas Christ being 
Feroum Dei^ only proceeded from the mouth of God, St. Dominick was 
seen to come from his breast. Nay farther, he like St. Paul was ravished 
into the third heaven, wiiere seeing none of his own order he complained 
to Jesus Christ of it; who exhibited his mother, the Virgin Mary, che- 
rishing vast numbers of his Iollowers in a manner that delicacy compels ns 
to conceal. This diabolical sect pretended to follow the rule of St. 
Austin, and multiplied so fast, that jn the space of two hundred and 
seventy years, they had one thousand one hundred and forty three convents. 
The Carmelites, or White Friars, pretend that the prophet Elias was 
the first Carmelite, who obtained of our Saviour at the time of his transfi- 
guration on Mount Carmel, this grand privilege, that his order should re- 
main till the end of the world. The true time of their foundation, was in 
the year 1122, by Albert, patriarch of Jerusalem, who gathered together 
a few Hermites, that lived on Mount Carmel, and gave them the pretended 
rule o. Saisjt Basil. When Palestine was taken by the Saracens, they 
flocked into Europe, where Pope Honorius IV. altered their habits, and 
for an indication of their humility, dubbed them Christ's Uncles, ordering 
them to be called Brothers of the Virgin Mary. Innocent IV. upon their 
parting with that heretical clause in one of their rules, "that they only 
ougiit to hope for salvation from our Saviour," like a true Pope, granted 
them many immunities and privileges ; whose example was followed by 
Pope John XXIII. he being thereunto moved by a vision of the Blessed 
Virgin, who according to his pretended usual lamiliarity, accosted bis 



2^ APPENDIX. 

hoIiDess in these words : " By express coomiautl of Me and my Son, than 
shalt grant this privilege, that whosoever enters this my order shall be Ir^e 
from «:uilt and punishment of their sins, and eternally saved." Urban iV. 
was likewise favourable unto them : as was Eugenius VI. who mitigated 
their rule, and permitted them to eat flesh, as a reward for their having 
burned alive one Thomas, brother of their own order, for blasphemously 
affirming, that the abominations of the church of Rome needed a relbrma- 
tion. 

This successive friendship ofPopes to thera, increased their convents to 
a number not inferior to that of any othev order. And they made such 
good use ol the Virgin Mary's favour in exempting them from the guilt of 
sin, that Nicholas of Narbona , gener.l of iheir order, alter having re- 
proached them with their hypocrisy and abomniations, in the year 1270, 
retired from their society, being no longer able to bear with their scanda- 
lous lives. The) passed over into England about the year 126/?, and had 
ibr their general ht. Symon Stock, so calkd from his living in a hollow 
tree. 

The Austin Friars derive their original from the same person with the 
Kegular Canons, and by the same forgery. In short, their beginning vvas 
founded upon this ridiculous story, from theii' own legends : It Jianpened 
on a certain occasion, as Pope Alexander IV. lay hair asleep and lialf 
^wake, that the great St. Augustine, though dea i an i roUen so.ne hundred 
years before, appeared to him under a dreadful figure, having a he, id as 
big as a tun, and the rest or' his body as small as a read ; by which myste- 
rious form, his holiness immediately knew the saint, and concluded that 
he ought to found an order to this HoSy Father, whose head could not be 
at rest in the grave for want of a basly. Aiid this gave rise to these men- 
dicant Augustinian Friars, who being confirmed by (bllovving popes, in- 
creased so prodigiously as to have in a few years above two thousand con- 
vents of men, and three hundred of .vomen. They passed from Italy into 
England, in tbe year 1252 ; and at their arrival a laging sicku'^ss bjoke 
out in London, and spread over the whole kingdom, as a presage of the 
destruction and plague, which these vermin would in time bring upon the 
nation. 

The Hospitalers of St. John of Jetu>alem. and the Knight Templars, 
followed the rule of St. Augustiae in many points, but were wholly exclu- 
ded trom the exercise of the canonical oiSce : their vow was to receive, 
to treat and defend pilgrims, and also tj mainlaii with force of arms the 
Christian religion in their country ; none weie admitted iimouest liiem, 
but those who were of noble extraction, whilst the religious societies v\ere 
for the most part composed of the dregs of the earth ; and they acquired 
so themselves such immense treasure, as procured them the envy and 
hatred of all orders ; which was the true cause of the total extirpation of 
the Templars, and contributed to the diminution ofthe power and revenue 
of the Hospitalers, who are now tailed Knights of Malta. 

Not inserting therefore these two military societies, we shall find that 
the number of religious orders amounted exactly to twelve; two piagues 
more than ever Egypt felt, an.i of a much more dreadful nature. For 
Moses only turned their rivers into blood ; whereas the monks, by their 
persecutions converted the whole nation into a sea of blood : he sent hogs, 
lice, and flies into all their quarters, much less troublesome vermin than 
those mendicant friars, who swarmed in all the private families: he called 
for murrain upon the Egyptian cattle, and for boils upon the flesh of their 
inhabitants ; and what were the religious orders less, than the coosumers 
of the substance, and the corruption of the people ? He cororGancfci hail 
&jid locusts, which destroyed only one season's crop j but these sanctified 



APPENDIX. 23 

cRterpiilars utvonrcd the Jand forages togethrr. He caused a darkness 
which soon passed away ; but the eclipse which these men brought upon 
Ihe hjilit of the gospel, endured for more than twelve hundred years. 
Auil lastlv, the first-born only, in that unhappy land were slain by tin? 
nngri oi {s.ci\ ; whereas in that, then much more nniserable country, those 
rnesseij-ers of the devil, sacrificed whole families to their covelousuess and 
lust, 'i'hat men shoisid dcsiie the onions ofEgypt is no vvomlcr ; but that 
they s!u)uld long lor its very plagues, is a folly peculiar only to superstition. 
The rules oi the Nui^s were exactly the same wilh those of their brethreu 
theFiiars, in each respective ordf r. to whom they served only as an ap- 
pendi?c or house of ease. All that may truly be aHirmed of them is, that 
th<y were a set of silly superstitious womci>, who thought it to be a piece 
of s{!iritual devotion to he subsesvient to the moTiks, tlough it were in 
gratiiying the lusts of the flesh; aiid bore to the woi id the face of chaste 
chri<-tian sixers, whilst, like a Turkish seraglio, tliey carried in private 
theteenuii^ mirks of the labour of l!:cir ghostlj fathers. 

A pi CMC excf cdjng all the rest succeeded the Refotmation, and was ccn- 
tiiv'ji by t!;e IVlothcr of the Abominations of the earth to overthrow the 
consrqiu'iues of that glorious eveiit. The Jesuits sprang up in the y<'2r of 
our Lord 1540. Their first fouofier was Ignatius Loyola, a Spanish soldier, 
who ( oilrctiug together ail the different Monastic rules of preceding orders, 
added tlK'Ffiuito some extraordinary ones of his own, particularly this ; 
*' that tho general, provincials, and superiors of his order, miij dispense with 
all laws f,unvanand divine, dissolve all oaths and vows, and free men from 
the obiigalion of all rules and decrees." They were called Jesuits, from a 
pretended vision of God the Father, who appeared visibly to St. Ignatitw 
Loyola, atul desired his Son Jesus Christ, who stood by loaden wilh a heavy 
eioss, to lake a spec ial care both ot him and his companions, which Christ 
promised he would not fad to do al Rome. This pestiierous s-^ct multiplied 
so fast, tiiat in the year lo08, liibadiniera reckons that they possessed thirty 
one pr( vinces, twenty out professed houses, thirty three noviciates, ninety 
six rrsif'ir.tial houses, and two hundred and ninety three colleges, besides 
their first college, which they pretend was in the wombof the Virgin Mary. 
Thesf Jesuits -^re much the most dangerous vermin of all those w bo pretend 
to the name of Religious, inasmuch as they dec!aie,no villainy, no treachery 
nor cruelty, to be erindnal, provided it tends to the benefit of their society. 
And by this means, whenever a nation is so unfortunate as to be overrun 
wit!) this diabolical crew, no one member of the community can promise 
himself a secuity either to his life, honour or estate. Nay, the person of a 
monarch is not exempted from danger, when he is once become an object 
of Jesuitical s; kfu ; as was notoriously manifested in the whole series of 
the reign (4' king Henry IV. of France, whose life was many times attempt- 
ed by these ghostly fathers, before they accompisshed their wicked ends. 
I'o pass over many others, I shall only mention three of their most remarka- 
ble ronspiracies. The first was that of Peter Barriere, a soldier, engaged 
to commit the murder by Christopher Abre, curate of St. Andre des Ares, 
and by Varade, the rector of the Jesuits' College. The former told him, 
" that by such an act, he would gain great glory, and paradise." The lat- 
ter, " that the enterprise was most holy, and that with good constancy and 
courage, he onght to confess himself, and receive the blessed sacrament," 
which he accordingly did ; and being thus Jesuitically prepared, he em- 
barked in the attempt, but, whilst he was watching an opportunity to put 
his bloody design in execution, was timely discovered, and received the due 
reward of his villainy. 

The second conspirator was Jean Chaste], son to a draper in Paris, and 
by his own confession, bred up among the Jesuits in their king-killing doc- 



24 



APPENDIX. 



triiie ; and being persuaded by them, that the murder of kin? Henry IV. 
would atone tor all his past sics, and merit tieaveti, he attempted it by stab- 
bing that monarch in the month with a knife ; which oeeasionei! Uiis re- 
markable saying of the kind's — " It seems then, that it is not enough that 
the mouths of so many good men have testified against the Jesnilsas my 
enemies, if they be not also condemned by my own moutli." It was ibr 
this fact that these ghostly fathers were banished France, and a column was 
erected on the very place where the parricide's house stood, m memory of 
them, and of their assassin disciples. 

The last and most etfectnal regicide, whom these Withers employed, was 
that bold and bloody villain Ravaillac, who gave Henry IV his mortal stab, 
on May 14, 1610, after he had escaped above fifty conspiracies, mo«t of 
them contrived by Priests against his life. That the Jesuits em[)ioy*"d this 
murderer, we have the testimony of Father Paul, who liveii at that time ; 
and, as he was counsellor of state to the republic of Venice, was perfectly 
well acquainted with the intrigues of all the courts of Europe. He tells us 
tl)atthe Jesuits were the trainers up of Ravaiilacs and king-killers, and that 
they were the authors of the death of this great prince. 

It were tedious to enumerate the murders, treasons, rebeliions, blasphe- 
mies, and such like crimes, for which this society has been banished out of 
France, from Daatzic, from the Venetian territories, ojit of Thorn and 
Cracovia, and Bohemia ; not to mention that inhuman contrivance of theirs 
in England, to blow up both a king and parliament at once. 

The fohowing is the Jesuits' manner of consecratii;g both the persons 
and weapons employed for the murdering of kings and princes, by them 
accoun'ed heretics. 

" The person whose silly reasons the Jesuits have overcome with their 
more potent arguments, is immediately conducted into their Sanctum 
Sanctorum, designed tor prayer and meditation. There the dagger is pro- 
duced, carefully wrapt up in a linen safeguard, inclosed in an ivory sheath, 
engraven with several enigmatical characti rs, and accompanied with an 
Agnus Dei : certainly a most monstrous copulation, so unadvisediv to in- 
termix the height of murderous villainy, and the most sacred emblem of 
meekness, together. 

" The dagger being unsheathed, is hypocritically bedewed with holy 
water; and the handle, adorned with a certain number of coral beads, put 
into his hand ; thereby ascertaining the credulous fool, that as many eflectual 
stabs as he gives the assassinated prince, so many souls he should redeem 
out of purgatory on his own account Then they deliver the dagger into 
the Parricide's hand, with a solemn recommendation in the^e words. — 

•'Elected son of God, receive the sword of Jephtha, the sword of Samsou, 
which was the jaw-bone of an ass, the sword of David wherewith he smote 
oS'the head of Goliath, the s/vord of Gideon, the sword of Judith, the 
sword of the Macabees, the sword of Pope Julius II. » wherewith he cutoff 
the lives of several princes, his enemies, tilling whole cities with slaughter 
and blood : go prosper, prudently courageous ; and the Lord strengthen 
thy arm." Which being pronounced, they all fall upon their knees, and the 
superior of the Jesuits pronounces the following exorcism : " Attend, Oye 
cherubims; descend and be present, O seraphims ; you thrones, you 
powers, you holy angels, comedown and fill this blessed vessel, theparri- 
cidBi with eternal gloVy, and daily offer to him, tor it is but a small reivard, 
the crown of the blessed Virgin Mary, and of all the holy patriarchs and 
martyrs. He is no .nore concerned among us, he is now of your celestial 
fraternity. And thou, O God most terrible and naccessible, who yet bast 
revealed to this instrument of thine in thy dedicated place of our prayer 
and meditation, that such a prince is to be cut off as a tyrant and a heretic, 



APPEXDit. 2b 

and his dominions to he. translated to another line ; cnnrirm and strcnjrtbcn, 
^ve be'^ecch Ihce, this iiistrnmeot of thine, whom we have consecrated and 
dedicated to th;it sacied ot^oe, that he may be able to accomplish thy will. 
Grant him the habprf;{^Min of tfiy divine otnnipotetjcy, that he may l)e ena- 
bled to escape the hands of his ptn-vupts. Give .him wings, that he n)ay 
avoid the designs of all that lie in wait lor his destrnctioii. Inlnsc into his 
son) the beants of tiiy coiisolation, to iipiiold and sustain the weak fabric 
o\' his body ; that coiUomiiitig ail fears, he n)ay be able to shew a cheerful 
and lively conntenance in the midst of present torments or prolonged im- 
pri<Joii(rtents ; and that he nny sinsr and rejoice with a more than ordinary 
exidtation, whatever death lie !indrM'.roes." 

'• This e'sforcis'n bein^; nni-;!)ed, the p:irricide is bronght (otho altar, over 
w!nch at that time hants a picture cotitaining the story of James Clement, 
a 13o:siiaican Fi'iar, with the figures of several angels protecting anii ondiict- 
Jog him to heaven. This Clement was acconnted a blessed martvr for his 
birbaroMs murder of Henry Ilf. king o!' France. This picture the Jesuits 
shew their cu'ly ; and at the same time presenting him with a celestial 
coronet, rehearse these words — '• Lord, loak down, and behold this arm of 
thine, the executioner of thy justice ; kt all thy s.iints arise, and give place 
to him :" winch ceremonies bsins: ended, there are Snly five Jesuits de- 
puted to converse with, and keep the parricide compaii^ ; who, in their 
common discourse, make it their business, upon all occasions, to fill his 
ears with their divine wheedles ; making him believe that a certain celestial 
splendour shines in his countenance, by the beams whereof th'-y are so 
overawed, as to throw thernsc Ivps down before him. and to kiss his fee?; 
that he appears now no more a mortal, but is transfigured into a deity ; and 
lastly, in X deep dissimulation, thay bewail themselves, and feign a kind of 
onvy at the happiness and eternal glory which he is so suddenly to enjoy ; 
exclaiming thus before the credulous wretch — " Would to God, the Lord 
had chosen me in thy stead, and had so ordained it by these means, that 
being freed from the pains of purgatory. I might go directly without I^t to 
Paradise !'* but if the person whom they imagined proper to attempt the 
parricide, prove any thing sqneami<=;h, or reluctant to their exhortations^ 
then, by nocturnal scarecrows and affrighting apparitions, or. by the sub- 
orned appearances of the Holy Virgin, or some other of the saints, even 
of Ignatius Loyala himself, or some of his most celebrated associates, they 
terrify the soon retrieved misbeliever into a compliance, with a ready pre- 
pared oath, which they force him to take, and therebv they animate and 
encourage his staggering resolution. Thus, these villainous and impious^ 
doctors in the art of murder and parricide, sometime*? by the terrors ot 
punishment, sometimes by the allinements of merit, inflame the courage 
of the unwary, and having entangled them in the nooses o!' sacrilegious 
and bloody attempts, precipitate both soul and body into eternal damnation.' 
This is the Christian method by which the Jesuits clear themselves 
from thejr enemies : how happy then must that nation be where LoyoUsts 
flourish ! i 

Tnis accomit of the religious orders in the Papal Hierarchy, is com- 
f)i!ed from statements which the monks themselves have recorded, 
and for the truth ai which they are witnesses and vouchers; and if so ridi- 
Cfdous a scene of superstition, falsehood and blasphemy, as th?tt which 
appeals in the original and progress of every otder, be not sufficient to 
creite an aversion from Popery, even in its most ze^ilau^s advocates, tbev 
must Irave lost all sense either of Liberty or Religion 



M 



.AiMMiNDlX. 



X. Page 245. Luthcr^magnanimmis address I rf arc the Imperial Diet at 
IVnrms in 1521. 



The history ronncrtrr: wiili Luthri'.> public appearance before ail iLe 
assembled riio;n)taries of tiie Geimati L nip ire. With the irrefragable dtiiBiice 
ofhimself and his doctiiiics wiiich he there delivered, constitutes so splen- 
did, unique and interesting an occiirr« nee in iiiodcrn ecclesiastical history, 
that all its concomitant events require more circumstantial detail than 
could be incorporated in tl)e lecture. 

Prior to the msetino; of the Diet, Pope Leo had exerted his utmost iufln^ 
ence with the Elector of Saxony, and the then Emperor Charles, not only 
tc» cause the writings (4' Lnlher t > be burned, but also to have him delivered 
up at Rome. Nor dUJ he neglect t'le u>e of base and sujall njeans to ac- 
complish his ends. He OiTtert' to one of the mosi learned menof that time 
many offices and great emohmieiits, If he wonld resolve to write against 
Luther. But this man is said to have replied to the Pope : " That one sin- 
gle leaf of Luther's writings gave him more instruction than all lormer wis- 
dom." ^^\^ attempt was even made to bribe Luther with money. It is 
related, tliat 2000 guilders were promised secretly to be paid to him ; and 
in addition to this, grf;at offices ani titles of honor would be conferred on 
him, if he woidd promise to be silent — but that the emissaries who had 
been commissioneci to make these overtures to him, had been obliged to 
depart from him with this confession ; " The German brute disregards both 
money and dignities." 

yhe noise which Ids writings made, now reached every place. The pro- 
hibition against the reading of them, had the very opposite etfect. Every 
one read and studied them. All Germany learne<l from them how unjusti- 
fiable the power of the Pope was ; how many errors the doctrines ol the 
Romish Church contained, and how very necessary a universal change 
and revolution were in religious opinions. Some htujdreds of noblemen in 
Franconia and Suabia offered their protection to Luther. All this inspired 
Luther with new courage, and gave him new strength, insomuch that he 
could now bid defiance to all dangers. It really appeared as if tie became 
more intrepid in proportion as the storm threatened from on all sides to 
burst forth upon him. Persecutions which would have deterred ordinary 
spirits from the accomplishnrent of their ends, had no other effect on him, 
than to ma ke him the more unyielding and intlned to redouble his zeal.— =- 
Luther himself relates, that at a certain time, as he was returning to his 
cloister, from the university where he had been reading his lectures, a tra- 
veller approached and asked him : " How he could be so bold as to accost 
every person in so friendly a manner, and give him his hand. That some 
one migh' have a weapon with him, and murder him." Luther replied ; 
*' How conV: any one escape '.vho should comnit such an act ? He would put 
his o^< p ;ife in Jeopardy and have to die for it." *' L 1 should murder you,'* 
continued the stranger, " and shoidd even myself perish for the deed, the 
Pope wo dd make me a saint, and you aherelie, whom he would deliver 
over to the devil." Herenpon the stranger left the city. It is also related 
that a foreigner had beeii loiind in his kitchen, ivho had a small pistol con- 
cealed in his sleeve, and uho asked Luther in iiont of the cloister : " why 
be vj'alked alone." " I rtn in the hands of God," Luth< r replied to him, 
" he is my shield and pioicclion, what cai» n)aH do to me?" Whereupon 
the assassin turned pale and tremblingly pass€^ through the gate of the 
city. At that time Luther was also apprehensive that he would be poisoned, 
so exceeding^Iy did his enemies hate his life. He at least received warning 
from many places to be en his guard. He received written information 
from Breslaw, that 2GC0 dticats had betn ffTcred to a ceitain physician 



APPENDIX. 27 

Jfhe vrould try his s;i:l!! upon Luther. Tlifie likewise often caine suspicious 
persons to him, wlinin he iiowevf r avoided as much as poss ble. He re- 
lates that when he once sat at table in a certain person's liouvc, aiit r hav- 
in«; eaten a little, be. ivas seized uitli violent vomiting, and thrown into a 
profuse perspiration, which however had not been followed by any turther 
bad conseqi ences. 

The Pope, who saw his power a;id authority so violently attacked, 
perceived no other nrieans of extricating hi(i:self from his ditiicuUies, than 
to entreat the Emperor Chailes V. in a more pressing manner tiiaii ever 
before, to have the punishment denounced by the B m, inflicted on Luther 
aod his adherents. The Emperor, an intelligent and itupolitic p; ince, tound 
himself reduced to a serious dilemma by this requisition. On the one 
hand he did not wish to displease t'le Pope, with whom he sfoid in such 
relations as to need his favor. And if he should on this oecfision n;)t oblige 
him, he was certain of losing his friendsliip. On the ather hand, without 
the assumption that his love of justice prevented him from yiekiina to the 
desire of the Pope, yet his own interest fMctated measures, which were in 
direct opposition to those of the Popy. He but too clearly saw ho.v abso- 
lutely necessary it was, to liujit tJse uirogant pretensions and claims, the 
plunderings and violent proceedinsi^ of ti.e papal court. And to this may 
be added, that he had become Emperor tiirough the assistance of fho 
Elector of Sasony, the friend of LiiUie!, and to whom on that account ho 
uwed grattude. If he should ^arry into execution the papal decree, he 
had to feai' that the Elector, who in some measure protected Luther, 
wrould thereby become ofil'ended. After weighing all these considerations, 
he did not think it prudent to break fiiendship with either party, and sum- 
moned Luther to appear before the Diet at VVorms. which grand assembly 
was held in the year 1521, to take his trial. But by adopting this alterna- 
tive, he satisfied neither party. Tlie Pope who did not wish an investiga- 
tion to be first made ; but wanted tlie punisliment to be imine<!iate!y 
JFilHcted, was displeased by this mea^iHH. And the Elector, as he believed 
he fores, iw nothing with greater certiiinty, than lliat the Journey and the 
vindication woul<i cost Luther his head, at f'rst r^- fused to accept of the 
propo.sa'. At length however both paitiis a^sciited to it, after a safe con- 
duct for ids journey had been provided for Luther. Luther hiinseir, seen > 
ed to be animated with the greatest cou!a'j;e. Among otiier things he wrote 
to the Elector as follows : ** 1 will when 1 am cited, if it shall be in my 
power, rather procure my s( If to be carried there, sick, if I shall jiot be 
able to go there in good health. For if the Emperor calls me thithei', t!)ero 
is no doubt but I am called by God. if !hey nitend to conduct the business 
in a violent manner it must be ip.trissted to God. He who preservff! the 
three men in the fiery furnace still 'ivcs and reigns. But if he will not save 
2iie, there is but a mere trifle at slaice, n)y head. For in this affair, (danger 
or safety ought not to be regarded, and it is o-sr duly rather to take Iseed 
that we may not desert the Gospe! wliicii we ;i;ive once adopted, nor' leave . 
it expo-ed to llie derision of these :iiig>:Jiy utfj! ; but courageously shed 
our blood in its defence.'' And on aisoiiier occasion he writes lo (^ne of 
his friends: '* Do not imagine i shall recant n* the ieast degree. But i will 
reply to the Empei'or. if it were ititeni'fd iisat i should appear f-efoi/B 
him for" the mere purpose of ma-iiu;' a r< ^iwiiiulon, I worild not e;o. i^'or 
I could as well here recant, iftlmt were U-e only oiiject. But if he c-;;ILs 
me before him to take my life, and hy m n^on of my answer, sliall <on'-i- 
dtr me as an enemy of the empire^ ii -i :i' « fffv to go to the Diet. For bf 
the grace of God I shall not fli e tunr ieavii hN vviud in danger." \Vilh these 
sentimerits Luther commenced iMsj.-iiirii"v >., Womss on the foui'tli of .April 
1521. All imperial her^iM a-.id ^< %r;;i? ;■ a:!i(»; aief> accomp-uiicd bha on 



28 



ArrE.M)ix, 



his journey. When on the «ay, ha sa^v the papal decree ol Uis exi-oiuinir- 
lutulion, and tut liaii whirh had b« en issued against him, pnt up in soiue 
oithv c ties li.i'ougi) wiiicii he |)cis.sr.i. ihc imperial heiahi asked him : '* will 
yon pioceed Doctor ?" •* Yi^s," he ajiswvred, " uot\vith«;tanding their 
iiavni^ pt-it uie to t!:fc Bai)." Wnen« ver he arrived at a city, t!ie people 
ran u» niert h.io, to s-ee the «ond( lial niaii, who was so ho id as to oppose 
thf popf , '.vho vTas consiiien u as a sn>ail Divinity. He every where re 
cfciVeo the asstuance, that he wou'd ta«e ljl;e John Hnss, who an hundied 
yeaisb; icre had been bumod, npon account of his attacks on popery. He 
was tidvirtd secretly to rstuni, and not expose himseU to the tiny of his 
enemies. This was his answe-i : " Christ lives, and we will therefore enter 
Worms in defiance of all tl)e j^ates oi hell, and of those spirits who reign in 
the air. vindiftiiey were to kindle a (ire, whose flames between Witten- 
berg and Worftjs reached up to heaven, yet will I, because t have been 
called, make my anpearance, and put myself between the teeth of my ene 
mies. acknowledg#Christ, and as to the rest, leave it to his care and direc- 
tion." Luther bad liardly arrived at Wt rn)s, when he was cited to appf^ar 
beioie tile Diet on the ioUouins; day at lour o clock in the afternoon. He 
fust strengthened himseU with a fervent prayer, which elevated his heart, 
and which he sent to his God, and then concluding with the following words, 
went to the Diet " O God ! thou art not dead ! thou livest ! but I will' 
go and die. Righleoiis is the cause, and thine it is. This is resolved on 
in thy name !" The concouise of people was on this occasion so great, 
that it was found necessary to lead him through secret passages to the 
Town House, vv'here the Diet was assembled. Every one wanted to see 
liuther, and it was with difficulty, that the military guard which stood 
without, could prevent the people Irom forcibly entering the Town 
House. As he was going into it a Knight patted him on the shoulder, and 
said ; '* Little Monk, little Monk, you are now going to undertake some- 
thing greater than I or others of niy rank have ever done, even in our hot- 
test military engagements. If your opinions are correct, and yon feel an 
assurance that they are, then go in the name of God, and be of good cheer, 
God will not forsake you," Some of the members of the Diet who were on 
bis side, also encouraged h ins vvilSi this passage of scripture ; " When they 
shall deliver you up, take no thought how or what ye shall speak; for it shall 
be .civen you in tiie same hour uhitt ye shaii speak." 

On his appearance be o e that august assend^iy, he was directed to be 
silent till questions should t>e put to him. I'he emperor's speaker on the 
occasion produced a bundle of books and iiiformed Luther, that by order 
of his imperial majesty;, he was directed to propose two questions lo him. 
The fitht was, whether he acknowledged tiiose books that went by his 
name, to be his own, ayd the second, whether he intended to defend or to 
retract what was contained h) them. Upon thi>, before any reply could 
be made, Jerome Schurfl', a celebrated doctor of the civil laws, who had 
come fronj Wittemberj in the character of Luther's advocate, called out 
with a loud voice, "Yon ought to recite the titles of the books." The 
official then read over the titles in succession. Among which were Com- 
mentaries on the Psalms, a little tract on Good Works ; a Commentary on 
the Lord's Prayer; and other books on christian subjects, in no way rela- 
ted to controversy. 

" 1 shall answer the questions," said Luther, " as concisely iis 1 possibly 
can. First : unless the books have been mutilated or altered by tancitul 
sciolists, or by the arts of my adversaries, they are certainly mine. Because 
this question relates to faith and the salvation of souls, and because it con- 
cerns the word of God, the most impoitant of all subjects in heaven and 
Ui earth, and which deservedly requires of us all the most profound reve- 



APPENDIX. 



rjDnce, it r oiiM be equally rash and daugerotis for me to give a sudifen an- 
svver to SIR- h a question ; since without previous deliberation I might assert 
less than the subject demands, and moie than truth would admit ; both 
which would expose me to condemnation Irom that sentence ol Chjist ; 
* Whosoever denieth me before men, him will I deny beibre my Father 
which is in heaven.' For this reason [ humbly beseech your imperial ma- 
jesty 10 grant me a competent time lor consideration, that I may sali.siy the 
inqui'y williout injuiing the won! oC God, and without endangering my 
own Sdlvation. After some deliberation, he was allowed to defer his an- 
swer iill th'^. next day, on the expiess condition, however, that he should 
dcliv r what he had to say, viva voce, and not in writing. 

On his return from the hall whe-e the Diet was assembled, many princes 
who were convinced of the truth of his positions, exhorted him by no 
means to be disiieartened, but to remember the words of Christ : * Fear 
noi liiem ivhic-n kill the body, but are not able to kill the soul : hut rather 
fear Ijim wliich is able to destroy both soul and body in heil. Whosoever 
theraiorfc shaH conless me before men, him will I confess also betore my 
Father which is in heaven " 

On the following day he was told that he onii:ht not to have petitioned 
for (i» )uy, hecau>;e he had well known lor a longtime, what would be the 
nature of his evamiuation ; and moreover, that every one oisght to be able 
at any mom nt to give an accoimt ol his faith ; and much more a doctor 
of great regulation like Lutherv who had been long exercised in theologi- 
cal discussion: . At length, however said the official, return an answer to 
the question of t!te empeior, who has so kindly pranced your request. 

Lutlier then rose, and spoke before the emperor, and the princes, in 
the Gorman language to the following effect. 

" 1 stand here in obedience to '.he commands of his most serene imperial 
ra;ijes(y, and the most illustrious princes, and I earnestly entreat that 
they would deign to listen to this cause with clemency. It will appear 
I trust, to be the cause of truth and justice ; and therefore, if through igno- 
rance, I should fail to give proper titles to each of the dignified personages 
who hear me, or if in any other respect I should show myself defective in 
politeness, they will be pleased to accept ray apology with candour. I 
have not been accustomed to the refinements of the court, but to the clois- 
ters of the monastery : nor of myself have I any thing further'lo say, than 
that hitherto, 1 have read lectures and composed books, with that simplicity 
of mind which only regards the glory of God and the instruction of mankind. 

'• To the first question," continued Luther, " I give a plain and direct 
answer; and in that I shall persist forever. I did publish these books, and 
I am responsible for their contents, so far as they are really mine ; but I 
do not answer for any alterations that have been made in them, whether by 
the crafty malice of enemies or the imprudent officiousness of friends. 

" In regard to the second question, F humbly beg your most serene inajes- 
ty and their highnesses to take especial notice, that ray publications are 
by no means all of the same kind. Some of them treat of piety, and of 
the nature of faith, and morals ; and these subjects are handled in so evan- 
gelical a manner, that my greatest adversaries are compelled to pronounce 
them innocent, profitable, and worthy to be read by Christians. The 
Pope's bull indeed, though it actually declares some of my books innocent, 
yet with a monstrous and cruel iudiscrmination, condemns them all. Now 
were I to retract such writings I should absolutely stand alone, and con- 
demn those truths in which friends and foes most perfectly agree. 

*'There is another species of my publications in which! endeavour to lay 
opeiT the system of the papal government, and the specific doctrines of 
the papists, who, in fact, by their corrupt tenets and bad examples, have 



30 



APPENDIX. 



made liavac of the christian iviifil, both in re^.ird to body and soul. — 
There j-; no denying t\m : witnes-? the nniversjil compiaints now existing,. 
ho"f the pr^pal laws and traditions of men most miserably entangle, vex and 
tear to pieces the consciences ot the t'aithttd, and also plunder the inhabi- 
tants of this faiDons country in ways most shameful and tyrannical, 
and scarcely credible, notwithstanding that Germany by her own 
laws has declared, that any doctrines or decrees of the Pope, which 
are contrary to the Gospel, or the sentiments oi the fathers, are to be deem- 
ed erroneous, and in no degree obligatory. If, therefore, I should revoke 
what I have written on these subjects, I should not only confirm the wicked 
despotica? proceedings to which I allude, but also open a door to fiuther 
abuses of power, that would be still more licentious and insupportable, 
especially if it were said among the people, that what I had done was con- 
firmed by the authority of bis most serene majesty, and a general meeting 
of the empire. 

*' Lastly, the delences and replies which I have composed against such 
individuals as have laboured either to establish the Roman tyranny, or to 
nndermine my explanations of the fundamental principles of religion, con- 
stitute the third class of my publications. And in these, I freely confess, 
I have been betrayed into an aspeiirty nt expression, which neither becomes 
me as a clergyman, or as a christian ; however I pretend not to set my- 
self op for a saint, neither do I plead for the strictness of ray life, but for the 
doctrines of Clu'ist. But it is not in n«y power to retract even these writings, 
as tar as the matter contained in them isctncerned ; lest by such a step I 
shoidd become the patron of the most arbitrary and impious usurpations, 
which in consequence would soon gather stiength, and spend their fury on 
the people of God in more violent outrages than ever. Yet. since I ana 
but a man and therefore fallible in judgment, it would ill become me, in 
supporting my poor paltry tracts, to go further than my Lord and Master 
Jesus Christ did in defence of his own doc'riies, who when he was interrc- 
gated concerning them before Annas and had received a blow from one of 
the officers, said, " If I have spoken evil, bear witness of the evil, but if 
well, why smitest thou me ?" If then our Lord who was infallible, did 
nevertheless, not disdain to listen to any thing that could be said against 
his doctrine, even by a person of the lowest condition, how much more 
ought such a contemptible being as I, who am all imperfection to be rea- 
dy to attend to whatever arguments can be brought in the way of objection 
to my positions ? I therefore intreatyaur majesty and the members of this 
iUustrions assembly, to produce evidence against me, and however high, 
or hovf^ever low, be the rank of the person who shall be able from the holy 
scriptursK t» convince me of error, I will instantly retract, and be the first 
to throw the book into the fire, 

*' Hence it will appear, that I have already deliberated and maturely 
weighed, the perils and sorrows, the discord and dissentions which have 
already arisen, and which may yet appear in the world, through the pro- 
mulgation of my doctrine, of which 1 was yesterday so very closely and ve- 
hemently admonished. Concerning which division of the minds of men, 
the opinions of others I know not ; but for myself, I have no higher enjoy- 
ment in any earthly good, than when 1 behold discord and dissension for the 
word of God ; because this is always the course and result of the Gospel; 
as our Lord Jesus Christ declared, '* J came not to send peace but a sword, I 
came to set a man at variance with his father ;" nevertheless, this conten- 
tion cannot be imputed to the doctrines of Christ, but to the corruption of 
his adversaries. 

"Permit me to suggest, for the consideration of us all, that as Almighty 
God is wonderful and terrible in counsel, surely it behoves this august 



APPENDIX. 31 

n.«:fTubly to examine witli special care, whrllier the object which sny ene- 
inl'^s so ardently wish to compass, does net in fact amomit to a comlemna- 
tion of THE divine word : and whether such a measure, adopted by the 
first Geiiiian tiitt ol the new emperor, might not lead to a dreadlH! dcSnge 
of evils. Under tlie proteelion ol God, there is reason (o angnr wel! of this 
excellent }onng prince ; bnt take care that you do not render the prospect 
oi'his government nnCavonrable and" inauspicious. 

" By a variety ot instances from holy writ, and particularly by the cases 
oC Pharoali, the king of Babylon, and the kings of Israel, 1 could prove ibis 
ijnportant point; viz; that men have ruined themselves at the very moment 
when they iina^iiied they had settled and established their kingdoms ia the 
jno^t prudent manner. The ruling principle, should be the fear of God.^ — 
He il is who taketh the wise in tlieir craftiness, and removeth the monntaios 
and they know not, and overturneth them in his anger. 

" In saying these things ! mean not to insinuate, that the great persona- 
ges, who condescend to hear me, stand in need o( my instructions or admo- 
nitions ; tio — but there was a debt which I owed (o my native country, and 
it was my duty to discharge it. The reasons which I have now alleg;ed, 
will, I trust, be approved by yohr serene majesty and the princes: and I 
huird)ly beg lliat yon will disappoint my enemies in their inijiist attempts fft 
render me otiions and suspected. I" have done." 

As soon as Luther had finished his speech, which was delivered in the 
German language, he was ordered to say the same things in Laliiii; alter 
iiaviug recovered himself, he did this with prodigious animation, and to llie 
very great satisfaction of his friends, especially the elector of Saxooy. His; 
adversaries acknowledge that he spoke lor two honis with the applause of one 
half of the assembly: until John Eckius, the En»peror's s{)eaker, hsiving 
lost almost all patience, before Luther had well concluded, cried OKt, in 
much heat and passion, that he had not answered to the point; that he 
was not called to give an account of his doctrines ; that these had already 
been condemned in former coiutcils, whose decisions were not no^v to be 
questioned ; that he was required to say, simply and clearly, whetluer fee 
woiildor would not retract his opinions. 

*' My answer," said Luther instantly, *• shall be direct and plaia- — - 
I cannot think myscll' bound to believe either the Pope or his comkcISs; 
for it is very clear, not only that they have often erred, but oftew contra- 
dicted themselves. Therefore, unless I am convinced T)y scripture, or 
clear reasons, ray belief is so confirmed by the scriptural passages J haT® 
produced, and my conscience so determined to abide by the word of C5od, 
that I neither can nor will retract any thing ; for it is neither safe nor inno- 
cent to act agains-t a man's conscience- Here I stand. J cannot do other- 
wise. May God help me. Amen." 

Aiter the diet had taken Luther,s speech into consideration, their speak- 
er told him, that he had not ansvvered with the modesty that became his 
character and situation ; that it he had recanted those books which <?ob- 
taioed the main parts of his errors, he ;vould have suffered no persecntaon 
lor the rest ; that fo\ him who had revived the errors condemned at Cons- 
tance, to require a refutation and conviction from scripture, was a wild 
proposal of a man scarcely in his senses ; that upon such principles, notfa- 
ing would be left certain in the church ; and that for these reasons, he was 
once more asked, whether he intended to defend all he had written as 
orthodox, or whether he would retract any part as erroneous. Lather 
persisted'in his former answer ; and intreated the emperor not to permif: 
him to be compelled to do violence to his conscience, by recanting what 
he felt himself bound to believe upon the authority of the word of God, 
unless he w»s proved to be mistaken by evident argunaents Irom scriptore. 



3i 



APPENDtX. 



Conncil*, he repeated, have errfid frequently. " Yon cannot prove tint," 
said Eck!!)5. " I will piedge myseU' to do it, " replied Luther. Ba! night 
coitsing on, the diet broko up. 

During: the whole of this interesting scene, the special p^rtizans of the 
Pope were filled with indignation ; and naany of the Spanish Iloujan Catho* 
lirs loMoweil Luther as he retinned home IVom the tribunal, and showed 
their enmity by long continued sneers and hisses. 

fniMedible pains were now taken by the princes, electors, and deputies 
of various orders, to shake the resolution oi" this hero of the rpiormation. 
Luther stood tirm, thanked the princes fo<r their clemency and jmod will 
toward Inm, and said. " He by no means censured Councils in gerieral, 
but only tinvtpart of the pioceedings at Constanee, in regard to John Upss. 
ft* thefaitli of Christ was truly set forth, and Christ's flock were led in a 
real gospel pastnie, there would be no need tp burden the church with 
human tra<iitions. He allored that he onght to obey magistrates; that 
the precepts for this purpose were to b- taken in their plain meaning, and 
that he had oi'ten taught this doctrine in his writings. He was ready to do 
any thing, provided he was not urged to deny the clear word of God." 

The diet having found Luther inflexibly determined to abide by the sole 
authority of ti)e sacred scriptuies, and. that no threats, nor exhortations, 
nor promises availed to make him change his resolution, the emperor sent 
him a message, directing him to leave V\ orms, " because notwithstanding 
• the most friendly admonitions and intreaties, he persisted in his contmnacy, 
and would not return into the bosom of the church." 

Luther was allowed twenty one days to return to Wittemburg; during 
which time the public faith was pledged for his safety ; but he was strictly 
enjoined not to preach to the people in the course of his Journey. 

** This is the Lord's will," said Martin, ** and blessed be the name of 
the Lord !" He then through the official, returned most respectful thanks 
to the emperor, and the members of the assembly, for their patience in 
hearing him, and their liberal treatment in general. He said, he had wished 
for nothing but a reform in religion on the plan of the holy scriptures ; 
nor did he now request any favour for himself, but to be allowed the free 
use of the word of God. Let that be only granted, and he was willing to 
nndergo every thing without exception, for the sake of his imperial majesty 
and the imperial orders. He left Worms on the following day, the 26th of 
-April, under a strong escort,, after having received from princes and other 
persons of high distinction, extraordinary proofs of good will and favour. 
Princes of the highest rank visited at his lodgings. The elector of Treves 
had even invited him to his table, where however the extraordinary cir- 
cumstance took place, that at the very moment when Luther was putting 
the wineglass to his lips, it biirsted. Conjectures of every kind, especially 
that of the possibility of poison having been introduced into the glass, 
gained possession of the minds of all who were present in the moment of 
surprise. But Luther with much composure of mind put down the glass, 
and said, " the liquor was not bestowed on me : the bursting of the glass 
was perhaps occa'^ii>ned by the sudden transition from coldness to warmth 
produced in the glass by the wine," 

XI. Page 261. Zuingliiis, Calvin^ Crmmsr and Knox, 

It was proposed to insert distinct biographical notices of these eminent 
Reformers, comprehending some of the most interesting ocurrences in 
their eventfu 1 history ; but the completion of the design was unavoidably 
precluded ; becaiise circumstances did not Justify the enlargement of the 
work beyond its originally proposed limits — the following narrative will 
however enable us to form a correct judgment of the prominent characte- 
ristics which these luminaries of the Reformatioa exhibited. 



APPENDIX. 33 

ZIJINGLIUS. 

A ivvf <l(:taclif;(l r.irciMti'^tnfjccs in the lireofthis 'ndrp'ul, pious, zealous, 
Ptili;;hteu(id, and eniii) iit Reronner will lucidly illusttate his spirit and 
ruolivrs and characteristics. He was born on January 1, 1484; and was 
killed Ml 15.30. 

fJis Biblical sludks. — " Z\v\ng\e had resided four years at Basil, when 
the hurshess ofGiaris, tlie chiet town of the canton of that name, chose 
him ioi' their [nistor. lie accepted this situation, which brought Inrn near- 
er to his liinjily, and repaired thither alter receiving holy orders, which 
were conlerred npon him by the Bishop of Con">;tance, in whose diocese 
the canton of Claris was situated. In order worthily to acquit himself of 
the ministry entrusted to him, Zwingle thought that he stood in need of 
deeper a!)d more extensive le.irning than he already po'^sessed. He accord- 
ingly resolved to reconjmenoe his theological studies after a plan that he had 
himself traced out, and which was very different from that followed in the 
universities. An assidui)us perusal of the new testament preceded bis fresh 
reseatches. In order to render himself more familiar with St. Paul's epis- 
tles, he copied tiie Greek text with his own hand, adding in the margin a 
multitude of notes extracted from the lathers of the church, as well as his 
own obscivations, and this interes4»ing manuscript still exists in the public 
library of Zurich. The attention of Zwingle was from this time directed 
to the passages of Scripture cited in the canon of tlie mass, and to those 
which serve as a basis to the dogmas and most essential precepts of the 
church. Their interpretation had long been fixed, but Zwingle thought it 
inexcusable in a man appointed to instruct his fellow Christians to rest upon 
the decision of others on points that he might him.self examine. He there- 
fore followed the only method to discover the true sense of an author, 
which consists in inleiprtting an obscure passage by a similar and clearer 
one; and an unusual word by one more familiar ; regard being had to time, 
place, the intention of the writer, and a number of other circumstances 
which modiiy and often change the signification of words. After endea- 
voring to cApiain tlie text of the Gospel by itself, Zwingle also made liim- 
"">elf acquainted with the interpretations given by other theologians, especially 
by the lathers of ihe church, who, having lived nearer the times of the a- 
postles, must have understood their language better than the modern doc- 
tors. It was in the writings of the lathers that he also studied the manners 
and customs of the first Christians ; Ibllowed them through the persecutions 
of which tiiey were the victims ; observed the rapid progress of the rising 
church ; and admired that astonishing revolution which by degrees elevated 
the new religion to the throne of the Ceasars." 

J^lis Preaching. — •' Without directly attacking the abuses authorized by 
the Romish church, he confined himself in his sermons to the doctrines 
which he found clearly laid down in the Scriptures, and to the moral pre- 
cepts to be deduced fnun them. He took every opportunity of repeating 
to his audience, that in ntatters of faith, we ought to refer ourselves to the 
word of God contained in the Scriptures, to regard as superfluous all that 
was unknown ; and as false, ail that was contrary to them. The time was 
uot yet come ibr unfolding the consequences of this maxim ; it was necessary 
to prepare the minds of men to receive the new light, and Zwingle thought 
that this could not be done better than by insisting upon the practice of all 
the Christian virtues, while most of the preachers of his time recommended 
uothing to their (locks but the external exercises of devotion." 

It was on the day appointed for the commemoration of the supposed mi- 
raculous consecration of the Abbey of Einsiedeln, thai Zwingle, imagining 
tiie minds of his auditors in a measure prepared for the attempt, struck the 

5 



34 



APPENDIX. 



first public and decisive blov^- at the reigning evils. An immense crowd was 
drawn together to listen to the annua' discourse. lu the midst of ths vast 
assembly Zwingie mounted the pulpit. *' By an exordium full of warmth 
and feeling he disposed the mind to colScctedness and attention ;" and 
then, alhiding io the cause of their present meeting, broke forth as follows : 

" 'Cease to believe that God resides in this temple more than in every 
other place. Whatever region of the earth you may inhabit, he is near you, 
he surrounds you, he grants your prayers, if they deserve to be granted ; 
but it is not by useless vows, by long pilgrimages, offerings destined to adorn 
senseless images, that you can obtain the divine favour : resist temptation"?^ 
repress guilty desires, shim all injustice, relieve the unfortunate, console the 
afflicted ; these are the woiks pieasmg to the Lord.' 

" ' Did these chosen (<.' Gud at whose fact you come hither to prostrate 
yourselves, enter into heaven by niyi:^,g on the merit of another? No, it 
was by v. alking in the path oi tiie 1 .w, byfu'filling the will of the Most High, 
by facing death that thcj? might remain faithful to their Bedeenjcr Imitate 
the holiness of their lives, walk in their lootsteps, sufiering yourselves to be 
turned asuie neither by dangers nor seductions ; this is the honour that you 
ought to pay thtm. But in tbe day of trouble put your trust in none but 
God, who created the heaveiis and the earth with a word : at the approach 
of (ieath invoke only Christ Jesus, who has bought you with his blood, and 
is the sole Mediator between God and man.' " 

" Language so unexpected produced impressions difficult to describe : 
admiration and indignation were painted alternately on every face while 
Zvviugle was speaking ; and when at length the orator had concluded his 
discourse, a confused murmur betrayed the deep emotions he had excited. 
Their expression was restrained at tir^t by the holiness of the place, but as 
soon as they could be freely vented, some, guided by prejudice or persdfnal 
interest, declared themselves against this new doctrine ; others, and those 
were the greater number, lelt a new lignt breaking in upon them, and ap- 
plauded what they heard with transport. Some pilgrims were seen to carry 
back their sufferings." 

His /irat celebration of the Lord's Supper, — On Easter Sunday, a table 
covered with a white cloth, uuieavened i>read, and cups filled with wine, 
recalled the remembrance of the last repast of our Redeemer with his dis- 
ciples. Tlje first priest, who was Zw ngle himself, announced to the faith- 
ful, that the religious act which they were about to celebrate would become 
to each of them the pledge of salvation, or the cause of perdition, accord- 
ino- to the dispositions they might bring to it ; and be endeavored by a fer- 
vent prajer, to excite in all their hearts repentance for past faults, and a 
resolution to live a oew iife. After this prayer, Zwingle and the two 
ministers who assisted him, presented mutuali;^ to each other the bread and 
the cup, pronouncing at the same time the words uttered by Jesus Christ at 
the institution of the last supper ; they afterwards distribiited the symbols 
of the body and dIo.kI of the Redeeaier to all the Christians present, who 
listened with the most profound and reverent attention to the reading of the 
last words of our Lord, as they have been transmitted to us by his beloved 
disciple. A secouii prayer, and hymns full of the expression of love and 
gratitude towards Him who ha<l voluntarily endured a cruel and ignomini- 
ous death to save r :pentant sinners, terainated this solemn and affecting 
ceremony. Zwingly vfas of opinion, that to celebrate the Lord's Supper 
in this manner, wafeto bring it back to its ancient simplicity, and to unite 
all that could reniier it useiul. The event proved that he was not mistaken ; 
the churcijes could scarcely contain the immense crowd that came to parti- 
cipate in this reiigieus solomnity, and the good works and mnnerous recon. 
eiliations which ibtlowed it, proved the sincerity of the devotion with which 
it was attended." 



APPENDIX. 35 

His death.— Zw\nz\e was Chaphin of the Swiss Protestant Army, who 
were surprised and invoived in an unequal conflict. ♦' In thf beginning of 
the batth?, while Z.vitigle was encoiuaguig the troops by his exhortations, 
he received a mortal wound, fell in the press, and remained senseless ou 
the field of battle <vhi!e the enemy were pursuinc; thrir victory. On re- 
covering his consciousness, he raised hinisel!" with dKficMilty, crossed his 
feeble hands upon his breast, and lifted his dying eyes to heaven. Some 
Catholic soldiers who had remained behind, found him in this attitude. 
Without knowiug him, they offered him a eonlVssor : Zwin^Ie would have 
replied, but was unable to artieulale; he refused by a motion of the h'-ad. 
The soldiers then exiiorted him to recotnmend his soul to the Holy Virgin. 
A second sign of refusal enraged them. ' Die then, obstinate heretic 1' 
cried one, and pierced him with his sword. 

*' It was not till the next day that the body of the Reformer was found, 
and exposed to the view of the army. Among those whom curiosity attract- 
ed, several had known him, and without sharing his religious opinions, ha<I 
admired his eloquence, and done justice to the uprightness of his inten- 
tions : these were unable to view his features, which death had not changec", 
without emotion. A fonner colleague of Zvvingle's, who had left Zurich 
on accouut of the Reformation, was among the crowd. He gazed a long 
time upon him who had been liis adversary, and <vt length said with emo- 
tion, ' Whatever may have been thy faith, I am sure that thou wast alwajs 
Biuccre, and that thou iovedstthy cout»try. May God take thy soul to his 
mercy 1' " 

CALVIN. 

This celebrated Reformer was born in 1509 and died, in 1564. One of 
the most curiously interesting and painful considerations attached to his 
name and memory is the ceaseles obloquy and hatred with ntiich " this 
great luminary of the Chistian Church" in every generation has been as- 
sailed The others, notwithstanding all their persecution^ when living, 
have received their eulogies smce their de;i!h. but Calvin is yet the inces- 
sant source of the most obstreperous vitusjeration. While this proves the 
effervescence of human depravity, does it not also furnish a strong argu- 
ment in proof of his doctrinal expositions? 

Labours. — During a fortnight in each month he preached every day : 
gave three lectures in theology every week ; assisted at aii the deiibcra- 
tioDS of the Consistory and at the meetings oi the pastors ; met the Congre- 
gation every Friday : instructed the French Churches by tlie frequent ad- 
vices they solicited trom him ; defended the Reformation from the attacks 
of its enemies, and particularly those of the French priests. The Council 
charged him with many painful and difficult commissions, and he was obli- 
ged to undertake long and frecjucnt journeys. The Counci!, who knew 
that he was an excellent civilian, as well as a theologian, consulted hiia 
habitually on all important concerns. He was |>articu!arly empioyerl in 
framing the edicts and legislative acts of the town, which were completed 
and approved in the year 1513. By his reputation and his eloqiience he 
prevented the usual troubles of a rising government ; and insjjired confi- 
dence amongst the different bodies of the state. Montesquieu has remaiked ; 
*' The Genevese ought to bless the moment of the birth of Calvin, and that 
of his arrival within the v,&\U of Geneva." 

Disinterestedness. — *' Fckius being sent by the pope, legate into France, 
upon his return resoked to take Geneva in his way, on purpose to see Cal- 
rin ; and if occasion were, to attempt redi-cing him to the Roman Church. 
Therefore, when Eckius was oome will.hi a le^igue of Geneva, he left his 
retinue there, and weut,accoi.'iprinitu tui with one lUcai, to the city, in the 



36 



APPEi\DlX. 



forenoon. Setting up his horses at an inn, he inquired where Calvin livrtl ; 
whose house being shown him, lie knocked at the door, and Calvin lunisclt' 
came to open it to him. Eckins inquiring for Mr. Caivin, he was toid he 
was the person. Eckins acquainted him that he was a stranger ; and hivviug 
heard much olhis fame, was come to wait upon him. Calvin invited him 
to come in, and he entered the house with him ; where, discoursing of many 
things concerning religion, Eckins perceived Calvin to be an nigenions 
learned man, and desired to know if he had not a garden to walk in ; to 
which Calvin replying he had, they both went into It ; and there Eckins be- 
gan to inquire of hin\, why he left the Roman Church ; and oftered him 
some arguments to persuade him to return; but Calvin could by means be 
p^;.-uaded to think of it. At last, Eckins told him that he would put his 
life ii) his hands: and then said he was Eckins, the pope's legate. At this 
discovery, Calvin was not a little surprised ; and begged his pardon that he 
had not treated him with the respect due to his quality. Eckins returned 
the compliment; and told him if he would comeback to the Roman 
Church, he would certainly procure for him a Cardinal's cap. But Calvin 
was not to be moved by such an offer. Eckins then asked him what reven- 
ue he had ; he told the Cardinal he had that house and garden, and fifty 
livres per annum, beside an annual present of some wine and corn, on 
which he lired very contentedly. Eckins told him, that a man of his parts 
deserved a greater revenue ; and then renewed his invitation to come over 
to the Romish Church, promiMing him a better stipend if he would. But 
Calvin, giving him thanks, assured him he was well satisfied with his condi- 
tion. About this time dinner was ready ; when he entertained his guest as 
well as he could, excused the defects of it, and paid him great respect. 
Eckius, alter dinner, desired to know if he might not be admitted to see 
the church, which anciently was the Cathedral of^hat city. Calvin very 
readily answered that he might : accordingly, he sent to the officers to be 
ready with the keys, and desired some of the syndics to be there present, 
not acquainting them who the stranger was. As soon, therefore, as it was 
convenient, they both went towards the church ; and as Eckins was coming 
cut ot Calvin's house, he drew out a purse, with about one hundred pistoles, 
and presented it to Calvin ; but Calvin desired to be excused. Eckius 
told him he gave it to buy books, as well as to express his respect lor him. 
Calvin, with much regret, look the purse, and they proceeded to the church, 
wher^ the syndics and oflicers waited upon them ; at tfie sight of w horn, 
he thought he had been betrayed, and whispered his thoughts in the ear of 
Calvin, who assured him of his satVty. Thereupon they went into the 
church ; and Eckius having seen all, told Calvin he did not expect to find 
things in so decent an order^ having been told to the contrary. After having 
taken a full view of every thing, Eckius was returning out of the church ; 
but Calvin stopped him a Utile, and calling the syndics and officers together, 
took out the purse of gold which Eckius had given himv telling them that 
he had received that gold from this worthy stranger, and that now he gave 
it to the poor ; and so put it all into the poor-box that was kept there. 
The syndics thanked the stranger, and Eckius admired the charily and mod- 
esty of Calvin. When they were come out of the church, Calvin invited 
Eckius again to his house ; but he replied that he must depart : so thanking 
him for all his civilities, offered to take his leave. But Calvin waited upon 
him to the inn, and walked with him a mile out of the territories of Gene- 
va, where, with great compliments, they took a farewell of each other." 

/Fi/Z.—" 1 give thanks to Cod, that, taking pity on me, whom he hath 
created and placed in this world, he hath delivered me out of the thick dark- 
ness of idolatry into which I was plunged ; and hath brdnght me into the 
light of his Gospel, and made me a partaker of the doctrine of salvatioo, 



APPENDIX. 37 

lyhereol' f was most unwoithy. Ami he lialh not only ^ruUy and grariously 
borne vvitli my faults and sins, lor whiclj I deserved io ))o rejected oi" ljini» 
and cast out, but hath vouchsaled to use my ial)niirs in piT^uhin;]; and pub- 
livhing the truth of his Gos;)el. And I declare that it is ruy \vish and inten- 
tion to continue in the same lailii and religion, haviii;r no oUier hope or 
leluiie but in his gratuitous jidopt on of me, upon which is lounded all my 
salvation ; embracing the o;race wiiic h he has given me ii^ Jesus Christ, and 
acceplingUie merit of Ids death and passion, that so all my sins may be bu- 
ried ; and beseeching Him solo wash and clsanse me in the blood of that 
grt at Redeemer, wliieh was shed ibr a!! poor s oners, that in his image I 
may appeav before his face. I declare also, ili;>t, according to the measure 
of grace bestowed upon me, 1 have endeavored to loach ijis \\on\ in its pu- 
rity, as well in sermons as in writings, acd endcavomed iHilhinliy to cx- 
poutid the Holy Scriptntes ; and that in all the dis|)iite^ which I have had 
Willi the enemies of truth, i have never used either cj.dliness or sophistry, 
but have fairly maintained the truth. But, alas ! my zeal, if it deserve ihe 
naiiiC, has been so cold and unworUiy, that I feel myself highly indebt<?d in 
all, and tlirough all : an<l if it were not for his infinite bounty, all the zeal 
) have discovtied would appear as light as smoke, and the graces which he 
has bestowed upon me would only render me more guilty. So that my only 
refuge is, that He being the Father of mercv. 1 trust he will be, and appear 
the Father of so miseiablea sinner." 

Death. — The year 1564, the first of his eternal felicity, occasioned a 
deep and lasting griel" to Geneva. On the secon« of February he deliver- 
ed his last sermon and theological lecture. His athsma having deprived 
1dm of the use of his voice, he seldom spoke, although carried to the house 
of worship. Being of a dry and ieeljle temperament, and strongly inclin. 
edto consumption, Ire slept very unsoundly. Duiing ten years, at least, be 
ate no dinner, taking no nourishment uniil supper time. He was subject 
to a headache, the ojdy lemedy lor vAhich was tasting ; on account of which 
he remained sometimes thirty-six hours witliout eating. He was frequently 
attacked by a distressing malady, brought on partly by preaching ; an<l 
five years lelbre his death he was seized with a spitting of blood. He 
was no sooner cured of the quartan ague, than he was attacked by the gout ; 
be was afterwairis altiicted with the chcdic, and, a i'ew months before his 
death, with the stone. Afflicted, however, as he was with so many mala- 
dies, he was never known to pronounce a word unworthy of a Christian, or 
eveoofa man of constancy and tonragf . In his greatest agonies, lifting up 
his eyes to heaven, he was accastoirieu only to repeat the words, ' How 
Jong. O Lord ?' When in health, he frequently made use of these words, 
with reference to the calamities ol his brethren in Jesus Christ, whose af- 
flictions were much moie paiidul to him than his own. When importuned 
not to dictate or write, during his illness, ' (i'oidd yiiu.' said he, 'that when 
the Lord comes, he should surprise me in id!e?iess 2^'' 

Having received a final visit from the syndics, from all the ministers of 
Geneva audits vicinity, and from his beloved friend Farel, he seemed to 
have closed his connection with merely earthly objects. From this time to 
the period of his death he was incessantly employed in prayer to God. It 
was, indeed, in a low voice, iulerruplcd by a shortness of breath, with 
which he was oppressed; but his sparkling eyes, constantly directed to 
ward heaven, and the serenity of his countenance, discovered the ardor of 
his petitions, and his cojifidenee in the mercy of God. In his most violent 
pains be frequeully rt^peated those vfords of Uavid ; "I was dumb. Lord, 
because thou didst it." And sometimes those of isaiah ; " f raonrn like 
the dove." And frequently, lifting up his heart to God, he would ex- 
claim, " Lord thou bruisest me, but I suffer v> ith patience, since it is thy 



38 



APPENBIX. 



hand that hath done it." To admit all the persons who wished to oYpress 
thtii legrct at losing him, the <loor of the chamber mr.sf iiave been open 
night and day. Bui as he spoke with difficulty, he requested th-it his (iiends 
uoiiid he contented to pray to God lor him, ami spare th< nis^^lves the 
tronble ofvisiling him. On being visited by his inlinate aticj high!} vdued 
triend, Beza, he inlhrnied him, that be m<\6(' it a mattrr f consci nee 
wot to divert him, in the saiallest degree, from Uie <!nties (»rhi"J chargte, so 
innch had he the interest oi the church, and t^je glory of God, at S^art. In 
this state he continued until the 19th oi' May, exhibiting a perfect resignation 
and comlbitlng his friends. And, as on this day they were accnstomed to 
partake of a meal together, in token of their iniimate friendship, he was 
auxsous that they should sup in the hall of bis house; and being carried 
thither from bis chamber, he made use ot these words on entering : "I 
am come to see you, my brethren, and to seat myself at table with yon for 
the last time." He then offered up the usual prayer, ate a little, and dis- 
coursed in a manner worthy of his piety, and of his zeal ; and when his 
weakness obliged him to retire to his chamber, looking at the cojnpany 
with a smile, - Tins wall," sakl he, "will not prevent my being united 
wiVii you in spirit." 

Wiiat he had predicted happened ; for until this day, however weak, he 
had never iaiied to rise, and to be placed before his Table. But after this 
iiight he remained confined to his bed, so thin ^nd exhausted titat breath 
only remained, though his fac4? was not much aUcr>-d. On tho day of his 
death, wliich was the 24th oflMay, he appeared to speak with less difficulty, 
and more strength. But it was the last eilort of nature. About eight 
o'clock in the evening, the signs of death appeared suddenly in ids face; 
he conta^ued speaking, however, with great propriety, until his kst breath, 
when he appeared rather to fall asleep than die. Thus was this great light 
oi ihe proic^taut church extinguished. On the day following, the whole 
city was plunged into the most inconceivable grief. For the repiibiic le- 
gretted the wisest of its citizens ; the church its faithful pastor; the school 
its incomparable master ; and all bewailed their common father, the source 
of their joy and consolation. 

CRANMER. 



This excellent worthy among the Reformers was not only a luminary for 
his learning, perseverance and zeal, but exhi'^iited a constellation oi other 
viitues, which peculiar!;^ qualified him for his influential rank in the Eng- 
lish nation. While he knew no fear either in conluting the Pope's anti- 
chiistian assumptions, or Hemy's tyrannic and contradictory claims; even 
when every contrivance was in operation against his reputation and life ; 
he was so meek, humble, patient and forgiving to all bis opponent, ti it it 
became a common proverb; " do unto my Lord of Canterbury d.spieasurc 
and then you may be sure to have him your friend while he liveti? " The 
jioblest eulogy which could be given of his integrity of heart, and gentieness 
of disposition. The following ex.imple of his forbeirance furnishes an in- 
terening illustration, not only of tUr R( urmer's character, but also oi the 
manners of the times ; it is extracted in the aniiqu -ted nanativt h qiuath- 
ed to us by Fox from his own edition of the book of Martyrs— tht- old biack 
letter type and the oribograpby beiug 4 fiangeci, 

*' It chanced an ignorant priest in th^ north paits, h« was a kinsman of 
one Chersy a grocer, dwelling in London, to ^it ou a time with *ns ot igli- 
bors at the alehouse within his own pan h. vvheie Vci-< communication min- 
istered in commendation of my LorJ Crmmcr. Arclsbisijop n; Cx ttrbury. 
This said parsoQ envying his namje only for rt^ligion's Siike, sau; t > his neigh- 
bours, ** what make you of him, he was but a hpstler, and hath do more 



APPENDIX. 39 

learning than the goslings that go yonder on the green," with such like 
slanderous and unseemlj words. These neighbours oC his, not ivel! bearing 
those unseemly words, articled agaiust liim, and sent their complaint to 
Lort'. Cronnveil, then vicegerent in causes ecclesiastieal, who sent for the 
priest, and committed iiin; to the Fleet Prison, mindint; to have had hitn re- 
cant those his slanderous words in public at Piiid's cross. Howheit the 
Lord Cromwell having great ati^iis in hand, iorgot bis prisoner in the Fleet: 
so that tiiis Chersy, understan Uhg that his kinsman was in durance, only 
tor speaking words agaiust my Lord of Canterbury, consulted with the 
priest, an«l l)etwe.;ii them devised to make suit rather unto the Archbishop 
tor his (ieliverance, Uian to the Lord Cromwell, before whom he was accu- 
sed, nnderstiuuiing right well that theie was great diversity of nature be- 
tween these two, the one gentle and full of clemency, tiie other severe, and 
somewhat uj'aactable against a Papist ; so that Chersy took upon him, first 
to Irv iiiy Lorti ot Canterbury's benignity, for that his cousin's accusation 
to'.icheri only the oliVnce against him, and none other. Whereupon the 
mallei was moved. Tin^ \rchI)!r^hop incontinently sent for Chersy ; and 
ivheu he came helore him, Chersy declared, that there was a kinsman of 
his Ml the Fleet, a priest of the North country, "and as I may tell your 
grai t: til tiuth,'' qiiolh Chersy, " a man of small civility and less learning ; 
anci yel hv3 hiith a paisonage there, which now that Lord Cromwell hath 
laid inm in [»nson is unserved, and he bath continued in durance two months, 
and is called to no answer, so that this imprisonment wili utterly uudo hira, 
unless your grace wili be his good lord." " 1 know not the man, said the 
Archbishop, nor wiiat he hath done, why he should thus he in trouble.'" 
Said Chersy again, he only hath offended against your grace, as may well be 
perceived by the arlirles objected aga'nst him, the copy whereof the said 
Chersy then exlubited unto the said Archbishep of Canterbury. Who well 
perusing the said articles said, " this is the common talk of all the ignor- 
ant papistical priests in England against me ; surely, 1 was never made 
privy 10 this accusation, nor oi his indurance I never Meard before this time. 
Notwithstanuiug if there be nothing ei.>e to charge him withal, I will atyotir 
request take order wWU him, atui send him home to his cure to do his duty ; 
and so tijereupon seni to the Warden of the Fleet, willing him to send the 
prisoner at afternoon. 

Wiien the keeper bad brought the prisoner at the hour appointed, and 
Chersy had well instructed his cousin in any wise to submit himself to the 
Archbishop, coniessjog his fault, whereby that way he should most easily 
liave an end and win his lavour ; thus the parson being brought into the 
garden at Lambet'i. the Archbishop demanded of the parson wiiat was the 
cause of his ind(Hance in the Fleet ? The parson answered and said, that 
the Lonl Cromwell sent him thither, ibr that certain malicioHs parishioners 
of his parish, had wrongfully accused hira of words he never spoke nor 
meaiit. Chersy hearing his foohsh cousin so ranch out of the way said ; 
" Thou <lastan.ly dolt and varlet, is this thy promise that thou madestto 
me ? — Is there not a great lunnher of thy neighbor's iiands agahist thee, to 
prove thee a liar? Surely my Lord, quoth Chersy, it is pity to do him 
good, I am sorry that 1 have troubled your grace thus far with him. Well, 
said the Archbishop to the parson, if yon have not offended me, I can do 
yoo no good, fori a«n intieated to help one out oftrouble that hath offended 
against me Jf my Lord Cromwell hath comuiitted you to prison wrong- 
fully, that lieth in himself to amend. If your offence only toucheth me, I 
will do something for you for your friend's sake here ; if yon have hot offend- 
ed against me, you may go and remain whence you came. O ! what ado 
Cherry made with bin?, calling him al! kinds of opprobious names. In the 
end, my Lord of Caatei bury seeming to rise and go his way, the siily priest 



40 APPEND IX, 

((Hon '.lis knees, aii.-i said ; "I beseedi your grace to forgive me this 
ritience ; a^siinifg; y„,!r grace tliat I spoke those words not well advised. 
Oh ! sai;i my I'-nd; tiiis is somewhat, and yet it is no good excuse, for drunk- 
enness eveiiMOje tiliereth that which iieUi hid in the heart of man when he is 
sober, allcgiiig a text or twain out of the Scriptures concerning that vice. 
Now thertfoii' sdid the ArcljoiUjop, that you acknowledge somewhat youi 
f:iilt, i am conic lit to coaunuae with you, hoping that you are at this pre- 
sent oi at! iiuiiiiVifot sobf iely. 'J\'jl me then, quoth he, did you over see 
me, (.1 were yoy ever acqu.iiiUeci with me before this day ? The priest an- 
swered that never i;i his ifVe he saw his grace. Why then ? said the Arch- 
bishop, what oci.-asiua had yoa lo cad ine a hostler, and that f had not so 
much learning as ihe ioslin^jS wiiieh then went on the green before your 
face? If 1 liave t!o ieaiiiii.i: you may now try it, and be jut of doubt 
thereof; thoiefore i pray you appose me, either in grammar or other liberal 
sciences, tor i have at luie time or other lasted partly of them ; or else if 
you are a divine say somev\ljat that way. Tile priest being amazed at iriy 
lor<l's faisiliiar talk, made answer and said ; I beseech your grace to pardon 
me : i am aitoi^etiiei- uidearned. and undei'stand not the Latin tongue but 
very simply : my ordy study hath been to say my service and mass, tair and 
deliberate, which ! can do as well as any priest in the country where I 
dwell, I thaiik God. Well, said the other, if you will not appose me, I 
will bf. so boid a> to a])posp you, and yet as easily a^ I can devise, and that 
only in the story o!" the Bible now in English, in which I suppose that you 
are daily exercised. Tell nje therefore wljo was king David's father '! said 
sny lord. The prjest stood still pausing awhile and said ; in good faith, my 
lord, I have forgotten his name. Theri said the other again to him,,4^f you 
cannot tell that, i pray you tell me who was Solomon's father ? Tiie fool, 
ish priest wi/hout consicieration of what was demanded of him befofe, m^de 
answer, " My good lord bear w itii me, i am no iiirther seen in the~SfbIe, 
than is daily read in our service in the church." 

The Aichbishop answering, said; this my question may be found well 
answered in your service : but I now well perceive, however ye have judg- 
ed heretofore of my learning, sure I am that you have none at all. Bat 
this is the commoii practice of all you who are ignorant and superstitions 
priests, to slander, backbite, and bate all such as are learned and well affect- 
ed towards God's word and sincere religion. Common reason might have 
taught you what an uidikely thing it was, and contrary to all manner of rea- 
son that a prince having two universities within his realm of well learned 
men, and desirous of being resolved of as doubtful a question as in these 
many years was not moveb the like within Christendom, should be driveit 
to that necessity for the defence of his caass to send out of this realm a 
hostler, beini a man of no better knovvledge than a gosling in an ambassade 
to answer ailleariied men both in the court of Rome and of the Emperor. 
But look, when malice reigueth in the heart of man, there reason can 
take no place ; aiui therefore I see, you are all at a point with me, that no 
reason or authority can persuade you to tavour my name, who never meant 
evil to you, but your commodity and profit. Howbeit, God amend you all, 
forgive you, and send you better minds With these words the priest seem- 
ed to weep, and desiied his grace to pardon his fault and frailty, so that by 
his means he n&iUt return to his cure again, and he woidd sure recant these 
his foolish words before his parishioners so soon as he came home, and 
would become a new man. Vvell, said the Archbishop, and so had you 
need: and giving him a godly admonition to refuse the hamijing of the 
alehouse, and to bestow his time better in th?. continual reading of the 
Scriptures, dismissed him from the Fleet. 



Lor.l Ciom'.vel! perceiving within a rortni|2;!)t al'ter, Ibat !iis prisoner was 
s;iU hotne without any open pii:rjs!un»=ut, came to Lambeth unto the arch- 
bishop, and in a great heat said to him : " nir LonJ, 1 understand that you 
have despatched the Northern priest that I late sent to the Fleet, home 
njiain, who mihone'-tly niiled at yon, and called yon an hostler. Indeed, 
I have so done, replied he, lor that in his absence, the people of his ciu-e 
wanted their divine service. It is very devout riivine service that he saith, 
qnotli Lord Cronnvell, it were more meet lor him to be a h(»s(ler than a 
rnr.ite, who sticketh not to call you a hostler. But I thou;iht so cnnch 
what yon would do, and Iheiefore I ^voiilj not tell you olhis knavery when 
Jl sent him to prison. Hi)ui)eit, hei»eeror!h. they shall cut your throat 
before that 1 s;iy a}>y tlsin; move to thcin on yonr behatrl Why ? what 
would yon have done wilii lum, qnath the urchbishop ; there was nothin,^ 
hid to his charge, other tlh'.u words spoke i ^ij;;i;nst me, and now tb<R man 
is repentant and well recon-',i!«-'d, and h^th been at great charges In prison ; 
it is time therefore he were rid of his troiibie. Well, said my Lord Crom- 
well, I ujcariS that he shonid liave preached at Paul's cross a recantation 
belbre he had gone hi^nn . Thit had been well done, quoth the other, 
i'.n- then you would h.ave i;,i/l al! the v. .n Id ;is wel! to have wondered at me 
as at him. Well, well, said Lnid Cromwell, we shall so long bear with 
these popish knaves, that at length they will bring us inde*.'d to be won- 
dered at of the whole world." Cromwell's anticipation was realized : 
these stars ofthe first magnitude among the English reformed, were both 
immolated upon the altar of martyrdom to appease the wrath of Romish 
furies, and to astonish and agonize all the Protestant regions. 

The freedom and ability with which he canvassed the king's marriage 
with his brother's widow, recommended him to the notice of the court, 
and Henry soon employed his abilities in defence pi his views. Upon the 
death of Warham he wai< raised to the see of Canterbury witiiout acknow- 
legiug the pope's supremacy. Thus at war with the authority ofthe pope, 
he began earnestly to labour lor the advancenicnt of the reformation, by 
the translation ofthe bible into Enghsii, and by inveighing against the vices 
and usurpation of the court of Rome. Alter (he death of Cromwell, he 
retired from public affairs ; but his influence was such, that he procured 
the passing of laws for the promotion of true religion, and the modification 
ofthe six articles which proved so obnoxious to the clergy. His enemies, 
however, were not silent in those times of intrigue and corruption, and 
the commons, as well as the privy council, severally reprobated his conduct, 
till Henry interposed, and saved him from further prosecution. At that 
kings's death, he became one of tlie legents ofthe kingdom, and while 
Eiivvard nominally reigned, all his knowledge, influence and energies, 
w(;reever in operation by his own wriling.s, and patronizing learned men 
to establish and extend the Protestant cause. The homilies were compo- 
se(i, and some by Cranmer himself; the six otfensive articles were repealed, 
the communion was given in both kinds, the oliices of the chiircii were 
revised, and the visitation of the clergy reguhiriy enforced. 

After Mary's accession to the throne, notwithstanding all her obligations 
to Cranmer ; she, in whom gratitude, sensibility, and ju-itiee were all ex- 
tinguished by the predominance of the most odious qualifies of Romish 
bigotry and cruelty, irritated at his conduct and consequence among the 
Protestants, summoned him before the council, and speedily immured him 
in confinement. He was attainted lor high treason and found guilty, but 
he was pardoned for the treason, and arraigned by his persecutors for heresy. 
He was removed in April, 1554. vvitli Kid icy and Latimer, to Oxford, 
to dispute and make his defence ^before popish commissioners ; but on 
the refusal of himself and his venerable friends to subscribe to popery, they 

6 



42 



APPENDIX. 



were condemne;] a?? heretics. In September, 1555, he was again arraign- 
ed in Oxtnc;!, for blasphemy, perjury, incontinency and heresy ; and while 
they pretended to summo'i !)!m to Rome, to rnnke his defence within eighty 
days they secretly determined his execution. Cranmer, though firm to 
lii«; iaith, yet yielded befoie the tenors of death, and in a moment of 
weakness and despair, he was preraiied on to sign his own recantation, 
and ti re imbrace popery, fVo;a the promises of pardon and restoration to 
Mary's lavoiir ; who instantaneoiislj, with fiend-like treachery, having; as 
she fancied, disg' aeeJ him beyond redemption, doomed him to follow his 
bretfiren to eternity His enemies having resolvpd to commit hitn to the 
fiam-r'S. he was brought to St. Mary's church in order to make a profession 
of his ihilh ; he surprised his persecutors by an awfnl appeal to heaven and 
their c< iisciences and by a solemn renunciation of the tenets he had lately, 
in a moment of error, embraced, emphatically exclaiming, "that, that one 
tbiiig alone \vrung his heart, and that the band which had falsely signed 
the diSiioiioiirable deed, s'lonld tirst perish in the flames." This manly 
conduct surprized and enraged his enejiies, he was immediately dragged 
over against Baliol coi^\ge. where, standing in his shirt and without shoe«, 
he w;is la^^tened to the stake. The fire was kindled, and the venerable 
martyr stretching bis right hand into the flames, exclaimed, "this hand 
hath offended, this unworthy hand." His miseries were soon over, and 
his last words were, " Lord Jp«;us receive my spirit." 

i'j this his final earthly scene, Cranmer evinced, the truth of our Lord's de- 
claration, '* Wisdom isjiistified of her children" — for the force of his 
arguments against the [)apists, the sincerity of his repentance, the manliness 
with which he expresscti his insuperable abhorrence of his prior renun- 
ciation of the trntij, the fortitude with which he condemned his right 
band which bad vvstuesseit his retraction to the first sensations of torture, 
the christian placability of his temper towards his traitorous enemies, the 
fervour of his supplications, and his immoveable confidence in Jesus the 
friefid of sinners, diffused a splendour so brilliant around the Martyr's tri- 
umphant exit, that its irradiations after the lapse of nearly 270 years, have 
lost none of their soul-quickening efficacy. He slept in Jesus, in the 
midst oi' the flames, at Oxford, March 21, 1556. 

KNOX. 



This Scotch Boanerges, equally with the other primitive dignitnries of 
the Prot: staiit cause, has been the subject of cor-tinual obloquy ; until very 
lately, his motives, character and actions were represented with incessant 
and tfie most fiajrant injustice. Now the current of opinion flows towards 
the point oi' equity. Tae following brief notice fills all the space which 
couhl be allotted to this depaitment ; those who desire a more perfect 
acquaintance with these and the other champions of the reformation, must 
refer to the authors cited in the preface. 

Knox was born in the year 1505, at Gifford or Haddington, in east Lo- 
thian. At the age of nineteen, he was sent to St. Andrews, in which 
univer-ity, the famous John Mair or Major, was at that time the pro- 
fessor of phiiosopi y and theology. Of the academical life and habits of 
Knox, very few records have been preserved. During a period of near 
twenty years, he seems to have lived at the university in scholastic seclu- 
sion from the world. That during the greater part of that time, he was a 
sincere Papist i- not to be questioned ; and indeed there is no reason to 
doubt, but that at an early age he was ordained a priest in the communion 
of the Romish church. Id the year 1542, however, or in the following 
year, he quitted the university from a well grounded apprehension, that 



APPENDIX. 43 

tlie opinions which he appears at this time to have publicly avowed, in 
lavour of the lei'ormation, wonhl expose him to the enmity of Cnr-iiual 
Beatouii, whose authority at St. Andrews was then littlp kss than ahsohste. 
Under the protection of the laird of Lanjiiiiddrie, Knox was engaged 
during the three succeeding years, in the prosecution of his own 
studies, and in superintonciing the education ol the sons of ids patron : 
but, harrassed with the eiiorts continually macie lin Ids deslrnction, lu; was 
compeliod in compliance with the soiicitalions of the father ol Ids pupils, 
to retire Witlj them tor piotection to the castle of St, Andreivs. {n this 
place, Knox received Iroiri someofthe retoiined nnnisters, who lik*. him- 
sell, had taken refuge there, a solemn cali lo the rxercisc of the ministe- 
rial othce. The account of his vocation iit St. Andrews is ah'ecting. 

'They of that place, but especially Mr. Heny Balnaviis, and John 
Roiigii, preacher, perceiving the manner o\ h s doctrine, begciU earnestly to 
travail with him, that he would take the fiuut ion of preacher upon him, 
but he refused, alleguig that he vfould nut i mi where God had not called him, 
m^anmgthat he would do nothing without a lawiiil vocation; wh^reupoa 
they privily among themselves advising, having with theuj in council Sir 
D. Linnsay of the Mount, they concluded Ihat tijey would gjve a charge 
to the said John, and that puhiicly. by the mouth of tlie preacher. And 
so upon a certain day, a sermon of the eleciiim of irnnisters, tvhat power 
the congregation how small soever, that it was passing the number of two 
or three, had above any man, namely, ia irme rf nted. as that was, in 
whom they supposed, and espied the gift of (joci lo be ; and how danger- 
ous it was to refuse an*! not hear the voice of such as desire to be instruct- 
ed. These and other heads declared, the said John Rough preacher, directed 
by his words to the said John Knox, saying, ' hrothei', ye shall not be offen- 
d<^d adieit that I speak unto you, tisat which I tiave in charge, even from 
all these which are here present, which is this. In the name of God and 
ofjiis Son Jesus Christ, and in the name of these that presently call" you by 
my mouth, J charge you tiiat ye refuse not this holy vocation, but as ye 
tender the glory of God, the increase of Chfi-^t's kingdom, tlse tdification 
of your brethren, the comfort of me, whom ye uudersLana well enough to 
be oppressed by the multitude of labours, that ye take upon yon the public 
charge and ofSce of preaching, even as ye look to avoid God's heavy dis- 
pleasure, and to multiply his graces upon you' And \u the end he said 
to those that were present, ' V/ as not this your tiuugir to me, and do } e not 
ap[trove this vocation V They answered, * It is, aud we apprf)ve i{,' — 
Whereat the said master John, abashed, broke forth into iiie uio.st abna- 
dact tears, and withdrew himself to his chamber. His coi.ntenance and 
behaviour trom that day til! the day wten he was comptiho to present 
himself at the public place of pieachi.^g, did suiJk iently declare the grief 
and trouble of his heart ; for no man saw any sign of uiiitb in him neither 
yet had he pleasure to accompany any man tor sevi r;ti <;, ys t-i;;elher." 

In consequence of this vocation, Knox, then in th; 45!h yea; o! his age, 
immediately commenced at St. Andrews those labour-, lor tiir itiormatiou 
of religion, to the prosecution of whieh the whole of his siicoer ding file was 
devoted. An unexpected event, however, very abrupiij siivpmd^.d these 
exertions. A French fleet sent at the request of Han;i!ton. tlh goveruor, 
appeared before the castle o\' "Bx. Andrews. Alter a short seige, the gar- 
rison was reduced to recapiluhitiou, and Knox, vuth mar.) i'lbtis, was 
carried in the galleys to the river Loire, and was there compelka during 
many months to labour at the oar. 

In no part of his life does the energy of character of the Reformer, and 
his fervent desire to piomote the glory of God, ap[)ear more cnnsuicuonsiy 
than during this period. While he resolutely refii^t;d lo attenu-it liis escape 



44 



APPENDIX, 



by the adopliou of any sueas'iire which coiilfl t'lulangtH- the lives of his 
oppressors he maintaiiied an unshaken coofuletice thalOod would deliver 
him, and that he should be prest-rvrd tor greater services Ihiin any which he 
had already been perfuitted to rciithr to the euise of truth- Alter a ccn- 
finement of nineteen months, oiii- Ilc|V)riT!er was reh-ased liom the galleys, 
and imn:iediate!y repaired to Euijand, where, under the patronage of 
Cranmer and the Privy council, ho preached during tvvo years at Berwick, 



and was probably appoijited 



King luiward's chap!ain>. His diligence 



in discharge oS his tmnisterial (hilits was almost unexainpled. 

Besides assisting in the cotnposiUon of the Book of Comraon-Prayer, 
and the Articles of the church, he preached not only on Sundays, but 
frequently ou every day of the week; he argued in public in defence of 
the doctrines of the Reforjy)ation, and travelled as an itinerant minister, 
preachin;; incessantly, and with gre it eiTret, in the towns and villages; and 
at a tune when he was afflicted wiili one of the n'0«;t acute disorders to which 
tije hum ai fame is subject. Edward esteerried iii^ character, and was anx- 
ious to retain permanently in the Church of Enghmd a man so eminently 
qualified to promote ihe dsilusion of the Gospel. He offered him the living 
of Ailhaliows in London, and subsequently a bishop's see, which it was 
then in contemplation to establisii at NewcastSe. These proposals, howev- 
er, were rr^jected ; from a dissati-daclion with the ritual and discipline of 
tile English church, and frotn a well grounded apprehension of the insecu- 
rity 01 the Protestar.t establishment in England, The accession of Mary to 
the tluone of lier brother revived the power and activity of the Roman 
Catholic party, and not only deprived the Reformer of his means of sub- 
sistence, but rendered it impos5,ib!e for him longer to continue the exer- 
tions which he had made during the five preceding years, for promoting the 
knowledge of the truth in tiiat kingdom. Deeply as he was himself afflicted 
with the loss which the church had sustained by the premature death of 
Edward, he could not, without the utmost indignation, behold the thought- 
Jessjoy with rvhieh tlie common people hailed the commencement of the 
reign of his successor. Me expressed these feelings with wainith, and was 
moil marked out by Queen Mary's government as a fit object for puiush- 
snent. Finding that it was vain to resist tlie power of his enemies, he 
yielded to Ihe entreaties of his hrrthren, who, he says, "partly by tears, 
partly by admonition, cot»n)e5lcd hhi» to o! ev, and to sive place to the rage 
of Satan i'or a time." Fn riie befiiMuisig ofiheyeaj' 155^, he qsiitted Eng- 
Jand, and landed s.ihdy at Dieppe in Normandy, 

During the reign of Biary, Switzerland was the general} place of refuge 
for the English Protestauls who fJi-d bom p^iseeution in their native coim- 
try. Knox was received with christian hospiiality and kindness at Geneva. 
His spirits which were mucis depressed at the commencement of hisexMe, 
' seem to have recovered their natural tone, IVom the cordiality of his recep- 
tion among the teachers of the dilX^rent Protestant congregations in the 
Helvetic church. Few men liave pisssessed, in so eminent a degree as 
Knox, the power of suhduhig present evils by the anticipation of future pros- 
perity. 

A consregation of EiJglish Protest.ints- had, in consequence of the perse- 
cutions of Mary, been establi'4K';i at Frankfort-on the-Maine. then one of 
tiie opulent imperial cities of the Gcnnan empire. By the persuasion of; 
Calvin, Knox was induced, in compliance with tlie urgent request of this 
body of ciu'istians, to reside among tiiei:» as one of their regular preachers. 
At Frankfort, however, tite most perplexing troubles and disquiet awaited 
him. Incessant disp'.ites aro^e among tlie people, as to the different parts 
of the English Liturgy, thti ad.niaistraliou of the Sacraments, and the use of 



aiidihl 



e responses su pubnc wa; 



iiip. Or. C): 



ofco:v;id3rab!e learn- 



APPENDIX. 45 

jivg, vvlio had beea pi'eceptor to Edward the Sixth, seems (o Ifave cng^aged 
deeply in Ihese un uippy and ill-timed t-outroversies, and rcceivt'd a publiJ*. 
censure IVom Knox, lor having persisted, in oppositioii to the \vi<;!ios ot uiHiiy 
ot'thc <o(j;n-cgaii»u, in .msweiinji, aloud alter the ininistrir in the timeoftii- 
vine Si^■vlce. Ja the conchision ol' the contest, the opponents 'ot' Knox act- 
ed with Uie most shameh;ss perfidy. They accused him secretly to the 
m-igisu ites ot Frankfort, of hi^h treason against the Emperor of Germany, 
pulling nito tiieir hands a copy of the " Adjnonition to the Professors of 
Truth (o England," in which some expressions not very res])ectful to that 
monarcii were contained. The magis! rates, though they thought the accu- 
sation no less aosurd than malignant, could not entirely disregard it, and 
Knox, oy iheic a<ivice, retired irojn the charge of Hie congregalioa, and re- 
tiu"n«ui to Geneva 

In this place he studied with great ardour and perseverance, and, except 
a short visit lo his native country, continued to reside there, uninterrupt- 
edly, till tiie year 1,'>59. From the return of Knox to Scotland, till his 
death, ibrms a most important part of the tenerai history of his native coun- 
try. Hk had the happiness of seeing, bei'ore his (ieath, the full establish- 
inent ui the Reformation, and of having contributed with more zeal and ef- 
ficacy to its success, than any other individual within that kingdom. His 
labodis oi every kind, were in fact, stupendous. No man should ever pro- 
nouiiie the name of Knox, without veneration and gratitude. B( yond all 
questitMi or controversy, he was the greatest benelactor to his Jiative coun- 
try u liom iier history records." 

From the time of his renunciation of the errors of Popery, to the last 
moment of his life, Knox appears to have been involved in an almost un- 
broken succession of disputes and co.-.tests. In defence ofthemaityr Wis- 
hart he braved the unbounded authority of the cardinal ; he openly joined 
at fet, Aniuevvs tiie Protestants who maintained that place against Ciiatel- 
rauii the governor ; his whole life was a scene of contest against the leaders 
oi t.ie tlonian Catholic cause iii his native country ; nor did he seldom op- 
pose ihe nieasuies, and severely censure the faults even of bis own party. 
In puf; icand in private, in his negociations with England and in the parlia- 
ment, in the pulpit and with his pen, he participated in the civil war against 
the queen regent, and in no slight degree contributed to the success of that 
contest. He was long the austere monitor of Mary, and immediately after 
Bothweil's marriage, engaged with his habitual zeal in suppoft of Murray 
and hss adherents. Even in more private life beseems to have been little 
conversant with repose or quiet. Among the Protestant exiles at Frank- 
toit, he was incessantly harrassed with angry contentions ; in his own fami- 
ly iie appe.as to have suffered much from the domestic dissensions which 
his marriage had occasioned among his wife's relations ; and, as though he 
had not .dready a sufficient variety of enemies, he thought fit to publish his 
treatise against female government, at a time when England and Scotland 
were governed by women, and when Elizabeth was presumptive heir to the 
English crown. 

With a single object in view, he seems to have abandoned every otijer 
pursuit. His writings, his sermons, his public and private correspondence, 
all exhibit the same insatiable anxiety ibr the welfare of the church of 
which God had appointed him minister. He scarcely lived for any other 
purpose, and appears to the hour of his death to have tbouglit and written 
and acted for the pjomotion of the Reformation, rather with the energy oi' 
passion than with the deliberate resolution of the man who steadily dischar- 
ges a solemn duty. 

His penetration into the designs of men, his sagacity as to the results 
of any measures, and his courage were almost unrivalled. Jiis snpersti- 



46 



APPENDIX. 



tious tendency, augmented bis characteristic vigour, and gave the utmost 
energy to his hope, and tlie greatest confidence m triumph. Opposition, he 
ridiculed ; and his ardent temper inconceivably stre nglhened by his highly 
wrought sensibilities enabled him to defeat all dangers in whatever iurm 
they assailed hira. His appearances before Maiy th< Queen, and his inter- 
views with the Protestant leadei s when in their tieepest d;*tresses d< velope 
a fortitude almost incredible ; but the detail must be omitted : the last 
scene alone of his life can be introduced. 

" He was very anxious ttj meet once more with the Session of his Church, 
and to give them his dying charge and bid thera bi>. last farewell. In 
compliance with his wish, his colleague, the elders and deacons, with Da- 
vid Lindsay, one of the mmisters of Leith, assembled in his room on Mon- 
day Nov, 17, when he addressed thera in the i'ol lowing words : *■ The day 
now approaches, and is beiore the door, fo; whicli I hav^ frequently and 
vehemently thirsted, when I shall be released from m> gieat S hours and 
immeasurable sorrows, and shall be with Christ. And now God is my 
witness, whom I have served in spirit in the Gospel of his Son, that I have 
taught nothing but the true and solid doitrine of ihe Gospel of the Son of 
God, and have had it for my only object to instruct the ignorant, to coj fiini 
the faithliil, to comfort the weak, the tearful, and the distressed, by the 
promises of grace, and to fight against the proud and rebeilious by the 
Divine threatnings. I know that many have hequ' ntly and loudly com- 
plained, and do yet complain of my too great heverit> ; but God knows that 
my mind was always void ot hatred to the persons ot t!)ase against whom I 
thundered the severest judgments. I cannot deny but that I felt the great- 
est abhorrence at the sins in which they indulged ; but 1 still kept this one 
thing in view, that if possible I might gain them to the Lord What influ- 
enced me to utter whatever the Lord put into my mouth so l.ohUy, without 
respect oi persons, was a reverential fear of my God who called, and of 
his grace which appointed me, to be a steward of Diviue mystery ; and a 
belief that he will demand an account of my discharge of the trust commit- 
ted unto me when I stand before i,is tribunal. I profess, therefore, beiore 
God and before his holy angels, that I never made merchandize of the sacred 
word of God, never studied to psrase men, never indulged my owi: private 
passions or those of others, but faithfully distributed the talent enti ustt^d to 
me for the edification of the church over which I watched. VVhatrv<^i ob- 
loquy wicked men may cast on me respecting this point, I rrjoi.e iu the 
testimony of a good conscience. In the mean tirne ray dearest br.' Ihren, 
do you persevere in the eternal truth of tiie Gospel , wait diligeiitly on the 
flock over which the Lord hath set you. and which he n deemed with the 
Iblood of his only begotten Son. And thou mv bioth^^r Lavson, figtit the 
good fight, and do the work of the L jrc joyfully and resolutely. The Lord 
from on high bless you and the vvl .le i ns'h oi Edi')butgn, against vvhora, 
as long as they persevere in the word of truth which they have heard of me, 
the gates of hell shall not prevaii.' '— ■ Prrceivijig that he breathed vvith- 
difficulty, some of his attendants asked if he ieit much pain. H^ answered 
that he was willing to lie there for years i! Go('> so pleased, and if he con- 
tinued to shine upon his soul througl>Je>ns Const. At intervals he exhort- 
ed and prayed, * Live in Christ, live in Christ, and the o flesh need not fear 
death.- Lord, grant true pastors to Iny chnrch, that purity of doctrine may 
be retained, llestore peace again to this commonwealth. a?;d godly rulers 
and magistrates. Once, Lord make an end of my troubl. . fiord I com- 
mend nay spirit, soul, and body, all into thy handsj Tboi !:.»»' t O Lord, 
my troubles. I do not- i^urmur against Fhee.' At- tnr^ a- app-ared 
to fall into a slumber, during which he uttered heavy groans. The attend- 



APPENDIX^ 47 

ants looked every moment Tor his dissolution. At length he awaked as if 
iroin sk'fc'p, and being asked [he cause oi" his sighin;^ so deeply, replied : * I 
have funiierly, durng ray (raii IHb, sustained many contests and many as- 
sauhs ot Satan ; but at present that roaring lion hath assailed me most fn- 
rioiisiy, and put forth all his strength to devour and make an end of me at 
once. Often !)eiore, he has placed my sins i>erore my eyes, often tempted 
me to despair, ollen endeavoured to ensnare me by the allurements of tiie 
world ; bwt with these weapons, broken by the sword oPthe Spirit, the word 
of God, i)e could not prevail. Now he has attac^ked me in another way. 
The cunning serpent hath laboured to persuade me that I have merited 
heaven and eternal b!esse(h)ess by the iaithiul dtsc^iirge of my ministry. 
But blessed be God, who has enabled raetobo;*t dov n and quench this fie- 
ry dart, by suggesting to me such passages of Scripture as these : 'What 
hast thou Lliat thou irast not received By the grace of God I am what I 
am : not 1 but the grace of God in me.' Beiiigtbus vanquished he left me. 
Wherefore I give thanks to my Go;l, throus;!? I«'sns Christ, who was pleased 
to give inc Ihe victory, and ! am persuaded Uiat the tempter shall not again 
attack me ; but wiihui i short tisne, without any grea? bodily pain or an- 
guish of niiud, i shall ex:change this morliii and miserable life ibra blessed 
inunortalit) through Ciirist Jesus.' Dr. S'reston asked him if he had heard 
their prayers, • Would to God,' he said, ' that yon and all men had heard 
them as I <:ave heard them. 1 praise God for that heavenly sound.' About 
eleven o'clock he gave a deep sigh, and said. Now it is come. Richard 
Bannalyne immccliately drew near, and desired him to think upon those 
comiortable promises of our Saviour Jesiis Chiist which he had so often 
detiared to others ; and perceiviiig that he was speechu ss, requested him 
to ^ive them a sign tSiat he i^seard them, and died in peace. Upon this he 
liftc-d up one of his hands, and sighing twice expired without a struggle." 
At his funeral after he had been interred in the sepnlc!ne, the Regent of 
Scouani pronounced his eulogy, *' Here lies he who nevrr feared the face 
of man.'' And christian charity wrote his epitaph, " good and faithful 
servant of the Lord," He entered Paradise, November 24, 1572. 

MELANCTHON. 

The history of this, equally with the other Reformers, from their con- 
nection with the general events which occured, of which they were oiten 
the mam spring, is invariably so commingled with the Reforraatj.on that a 
circuntstantiai narrative cannot be incorporated. His prominent character- 
istics must be learnt thereibre Irom a few detached memorials. i 

Meiaocliion was ' the intimate friend and distinguished co adjntor of 
Martin Lutiier ;' and in his character was associated the most aeninne piety 
witiia high degree of literary talent, and a larj^e portion of Christian chari- 
ty. He was born in the close of the fifteenth century, and educated in the 
bosom ol the church of Rome, under the ablest scholars of the age, whom, 
however, he soon equalled, and perhaps excelled, particnlariy io the Greek 
literature, vvliich he was an eminent instrument of reviving and extending. 

The ciiiaracterof Melancthon was, it seems, inclined to melancholy, and 
he was often tortured wiih anxieties: and when his friends conjured him 
to suj^ press them, he would piously reply, ' If 1 had no anxieties, I sJoold 
lose a powerful incentive to prayer; but when the cares of Hfe impel i.i de- 
votion, tiie best means of consolation, a religious muid cannot do wirfiont 
tlietn. Thus trouble compels me to pray, and prayer drives away trouble.' 
Avadnig himself of a favorable opportunity, he went from Spires to pay a 
short visit to his mother. In the course of conversation, she mentioned to 
her son (he manner in which she was accustomed to attend to her devotions, 



40 



APPENDIX* 



and the lorm she geanrally used, which was tree !Vom the provaiiin.^ ^uper^ 
slUioiis. " But wL'at (said she) am I to believe, aniidst so in:u;y different 
opinions of the present day ?" *' Goon (replied M<^!:ti)elh >u) believe and 
pray as you do and have done before, and do not disturb yonisidfabout the 
disiMittsanrt controversies of the times." 

An anecdote of Lniher, is highly characteristic of tbe spirit of that Re- 
ibr.-ncr. On visiiing; Melaiicthon, who was taken il! on his journey to Ra- 
giienaw, he found htm apparently at the point of death, and burst nut into 
ti)e toliowing strain of ardent devotion :"We iinplo'c thee, O Lord our God 1 
we cast all our burdens on thee, and will cry. till thou hearest ik, pleading 
all ttie promises which can be found in th^^ Hoiy Scriptures, re'spectins thy 
hearing prayer ; so that thou mm t indeed hear us, to preserve, at all future 
periods, our confidence in thine own promises." After this he seized the 
hand of Melancthon, and in the tone ofa p'ophet, said, *' Be of good cour- 
age, Philip, 7/oii shall not die ;" and from that moment IMeiancthon beg-'u 
to revive, and speedily recovered. Upon this fact we add one remark, 
that the conduct of eminent men, on extraordinary occasions, must not be 
drawn into precedent in the circumstances oi common lite. 

It is not a iittie remarkable, that in tlie case of Servetus, the memory of 
which departed Blasphemer and Infidel, heretics of everj class and of all 
subsequent generations, and enemies of the cross f Christ of all grades of 
corruption and insolence, have embalmed as a standing memento whence 
to manid'actnre falsehood and vituperation ; this proverbially lamb like 
Refoimei, equally with all the other Piotestants of that period, coincided 
with Calvin. But in this age. Christians of every party retained the Popish 
doctrine, "that gross relig,ious errors were punishable by the civil magis- 
trate ;" on which principle even the gentle and humane Melancthon thought 
the Council of Geneva, had done " right in putting to death this obstinate 
man (Servetus) anu wondered that any one could be Ibund to disapprove of 
this proceeding." 

The Ibilowiug Ode, although expressly written on the death of Melanc- 
thon ; may with equal propriety be adapted to almost all ol the Reform- 
ers ; and is here introduced as a general elegiac tribute to the memory of 
those Christian Heroes, by whose instrumeutaKty we enjoy all our civil and 



ON THE DEATH OF PHILIP MELANCTHON. 

OH / who would envy those who die 
Victims on Ambition's shrine ! 
. Though idiot man may rank them high, 
And to the slain in victory, 
Pay honors half divine ; 



Still'd by the lightest touch of death, 

The happier lot be mine : 
I would not, that the murdering brand, 
Were the last weapon in my hand. 

He, of whom these pages tel!» 
He, a soldier too — ^of truth. 
He, a hero from his youth ; 

I[ovv delightiully he fell ! 

Not in the crash, and dip, and flood, 
Of execrations, groans, and blood, 
Rivetting fetters on the gaod : — 

But happily, aod well. 



?^o song of triumph founds his fall. 

No maich ot death salutes his hier'; 
But ti ibnte swteter lar than all, 

Thesainled sigh, the orphan tear ! 
Yd moii/ II not, ye m lio st nd around, 

Bid nol time less swiftly roll ; 
What though shade the prospect bound, 
He a Im ighter world has found, 

Death is tlie birth-day of the soul ! 

Witness ! foi' ye saw hinn die. 
Heard you c-on:plaint, or groan, or sigh ? 
Or it One sigh breathed oVr his breast. 
As gentle airs, when days of summer close, 
Breathe over wearied nature still repose. 

And lull alovelj evening to rest i 
"Jl whispeied,— *' All w ithin is peace, 
*• The stoim is o'er, and troubles cease.'* 

His sun went down in cloudless skies. 
Assured upon the morn to rise 

In lovelier array ; 
But nut like Earth's declining light 
To vanish back again to night ; 
The zenith wh<^re he now shall glow 
JNo bound, no setting beam, can know ; 
Without or cloud or shade of woe. 

Is that eternal day. 

History will not write his name, 
Upon the crimson roll of f^«rae, 
But Religion, meeker maid, 
Mark liim in her tablet fair ; 
' And, when iDilliou names shall fade, 

His will stand recorded there ! 

Xn. Page 266. 

The biographical notices of the martyrs mentioned in the text, with aa 
abstract of theii disputations in defence of the truth are unavoidably o- 
mitted ; aud for the same cause, that the work might not be extended be- 
yond its limits, the examples of divine retribution upon the persecutors 
of Christ's disciples, are excluded. Those who desire a full acquaintance 
with this subject are referred to Fox's Book of Martyrs. 

XHI. Page2C7. Walter Mill ax Milne. 

This martyr for the truth was an aged minister of the most inoffensive 
manners, whose death t^xcited universal horror thoughcut Scotland. No 
one of the civil otficers could be found who would partake in his exe ution ; 
ohe of the Archbishop of St. Andrew's servants at length engaged in the o- 
dious work — when fastened to the stake, he said, " 1 trust iu God I shall be 
the last that shall suffer death for his holy cause." His confidence was true. 
He was the last Scotch maityr for the Protestant religion. His pretended 
trial and death are one of the most interesting passages in ecclesiastical 
hislorv. 

7 



50 



APPENDIX. 



XIV. This number was altered by mistake. 
XV. P«ge 323. Scotland before the Reformation, 

The corruptions by which the christian religion was universally depravcri, 
befbrf* the Re -orraation, had grown to a greater height in Scotland, than is 
any other nation of the Westirn church. Superstition and religious impos- 
ture, in their grossest forms, gained an easy admission among a rude and 
ignorant people. By means of these, the clergy attained to an exorbitant 
degree of opulence and power ; which were accompanied, as they always 
hare been, with the co'ruption of their order, and of the whole system of 
religion. Tlie full half of the wealth of the nation belonged to the clergy ; 
and the greater pairt of this was in the hands of a few of their number, wh» 
had the command of the whole body. Avarice, ambition, and the love of 
secular pomp, leigned among the superior orders. Bishops and Abbots ri- 
valled the first nobility in magnificeuce, and preceded them in honours. A 
vacant bishop! ic or abbacy called forth powerful competitors, who contend- 
ed tor it as for a princip ility or petty kingdom ; it was obtained by simi- 
1 ir arts, and not unfrequently taken possession of by the same weapons. 
InfV\! for benetiees wereopejily put to sale, or bestowed on the illiterate and 
unworthy minions of courtiers ; on dice-players, st.olling bards, and the 
bastards of Bishops. There was not such a thing known as for a bishop to 
preach; th' practice was even gone into dissnetude among all the secular 
clergy, and was wholly devolved on the mendicant monks, who employed it 
for thp Hsost mere? nary purposes. 

The lives of the < l^rgy, exempted from secular jurisdiction, and corrupt- 
ed b} w il (ii a;'^ idleness werfi became a scandal to religion, and an outrage 
on ,' ncy. T iraugh the blind devotion and munificence of princes and 
nob: is mo ia«itirie^, those nurseries of superstition and idleness, had great- 
ly fuiis split d in the nation ; and though they had universally degenerated, 
and w -re notoriously become the haunts of lewdness and debauchery, it 
was deemed icnpious and sacrilegious to re.luce their number, abridge their 
prifileges. or alien-: tf their funds. The kingdom swarmed with ignorant, 
idie, h3xuriou« monks, who, like locusts, devoured the fruits of the earth, 
and fiihd fhe air with pestilential infectioD : friars. White, black, and grey ; 
with caionf^ ses of various clans. 

The ig;torance of the clergy respecting religion was as gross as the disso- 
luteness of their morals. Even bishops were not ashamed to confess that 
they w re unacquainted with the canon of their faith, and had never read 
any part ot the sacred Scriptures, except what they met with in their missals. 
Und> r such pastors the people perished for lack of knowledge. That book 
which was able to make them wise unto salvatiou, and intended to be e- 
qualiy accessible by '* Jew and Greek, Barbarian and Scythian, bond and 
free," was locke<i up from them, and the use of it, in their own tongue, 
prohibited under the heaviest penalties. The religious service was mum- 
bled over in a dead language, which many of the priests did not nnderstand, 
and some of them could scarcely read ; and the greatest care was taken to 
prevfiUt even catechisms, composed and approved by the clergy, from com- 
ing into thf hands of the i;iity. 

L^rge sums of mone) were annually exported out of the kingdom, for the 
purch-isiug of palls, the confirmation of benefices, the conducting of appeals, 
and for many other purposes ; in exchangn for which, were received leaden 
bulls, woollen palls, wooden images, plenty of old bones, with similar ar- 
ticles of precious consecrated niuramery. Of the doctrine of Christianity 
scarcely any thing remained but the name. Instead of being directed to of- 
fer up their adorations to oue God, the people were taught to divide theui 



APPENDIX. 51 

atnonjSf an innumerable company of iiifeiior objects. A plurality of merJl- 
aroi-s sis; red the honor of procnrin«; the diviin^ favour, with liie 'One 
Modiatoi' bf'tween God and man ;" and more pelilions wdf. preseiitcd to 
thp VirjTiii Maiy and other saints, than to " Hiiri whom the Frither bear'.ah 
always." The sacrifice of the ma>is was reprt^^i ntcd v^s procutinii tbr2;ive- 
ness of sins to the living and the dead, to the iniinite disparasejnent of the 
^acrilice by which Jesns Christ expiated sin and procured everh.stnig; re- 
tlemption ; and the consciences of men ware withdrawn frOm iaith in the 
merits of their Saviour, to a delusive reliance upon priestly absobitions, 
papal piirdons, and voluntary penances. Instead ol being instructed to 
denionstrate the sincerity of their faith and repentance, by (orsaking their 
sins, and to testify their love to God and man, by observing tlie ordinances 
of worship authorised by scripture, and practising the duties of morality ; 
they were taught, that, if they regularly said their j4vcs and Credos, con- 
fessed themselves to a priest, purchased a niass, went in pilgrimage to the 
shrine of some celebrated saint, or pei formed some prescribed act of bodily 
mortification — if they refrained from flesh on Fridays, and punctually paid 
their tithes and other church dues, their salvation was infallibly sernred ia 
due time : while those who were so rich and pious as to build a chapel or 
an altar, and to endow it for the support of a priest, to perform masses, o- 
bits, and dirges, procured a relaxation ol the pains of purgytory for them- 
selves or fh; ir relations, according to the extent of their moriifications. Le- 
gendary tales concerning the founder of sosne religious order, his wonderful 
sanctity, the miracles which he performed, his cfunbats with the devil, his 
watchiugs, fastings, flagellations ; the virtues ot holy water, chrism, eross. 
ing, and exorcism ; the horrors of purgatory, with the numbers released 
from it by the intercession of some powerlid saint; these, with low jests, 
table-talk, and fire-side scandal, formed the favorite topics of these preach- 
ers, and were served up to the people instead of the pure, solid, and sub- 
lime doctrines of the Bible. 

The beds of the dying were beseiged, and their last moments disturbed by 
avaricious priests, who laboured to extort bequests to themselves or to the 
church. Not satisfied with the exacting of tythes from the living, a de- 
mand was made upon the dead : no sooner had a poor husband :nin breathed 
his last, than the rapacious vicar came and carried otf his corps present, 
which he repeated as often as death visited the family. Ecclesiastical cen- 
sures were fulminated against those who were reluctant in making these 
payments, or who showed themselves disobedient to the clergy ; and, for 
a little money they were prostituted on the most trifling occasions. Divine 
service was neglected ; the churches were deserted; so that, except on a 
few festival days, the places of worship in many parts of the country, served 
only iif sanctuaries for malefactors, places of traffic, or resorts lor pastime. 

Persecution, and the suppression A' free inqury, were the only weapons 
by which its interested supporters were able to detiend this system of cor- 
ruption and imposture. Every avenue by which truth might enter was 
earefully guarded. Learning was brandeii as the parent of heresy. The 
most frighthil pictures were drawn of those who had separated from the Ro- 
mish church, and held up before the eyesoi the people, to deter them Irom 
imitating their example. Ifany person attaint d a degree of ihumination a- 
midst the general darkness, began to hint dissatisfaction with thecoufluet of 
the clergy, and to propose the correction of abuses, he was imme(ii;itely 
stigmatized as a heretic, and, if he did not secure Lis safety by flight, was 
imiiured in a dungeon or committed to the flames 

J-^rom this imperfect sketch we may see how frdse the representation is 
which some persons would impose on us ; as if popery were a system, erro- 
(leous indeed, but purely specidative I siiperstilious, but harmless; provideii 



/ 



/ 



52, APPEN1>IX. 

it Ijad not been acculentallj accompanied vrilb intolerant e and {'int^ltr. 
The very rev^^rse is the ruth. It may be salciy s:aid, that there is not one 
of its erroneous tenets, or oi'itssnperslitioiis j)rrtciiies, w hioh was not either 
orig; n;vlly contrived, or aitliiHy accumiiuHlated, to advtuice and support 
some practical abuse ; to agjsrandize the ecclesia-itlcal order, secure to them 
immnoity from civil jurisdiction, sanctify their encroachments upon sectdar 
ant!)oriti< s, vindicate their usurpation^ upon the consciences of men, cher- 
ish implicit obedience to the decisions of the church, and extinguish free 
inquiry and liberal science. 

It was a system not more repugnant to the religion of the Bible, tlian 
inc^>mpatih|e with the independence, liberty, and prosperity of kingdoms ; 
a sy«^t»=m not more destructive to the souls of men, than to social and do- 
mestic happiness, and th*^* principles ofso(uid morality. To the revival of 
the primitive doctrines and institutions of Christianity, by the preaching and 
writings o< the Reformers, and to those controversies by which the popish 
errors were confuted from Scripture; we aie chiefly indebted for the over- 
throw of superstition, ignorance and despotism; and forth? blessings, po- 
litical and religious, which we enjoy, all of which may be traced to the 
Reformation from popery. 

How gratei'ul should we be to divine Provirlence for this happy revolu- 
tion ! For those persons do but "sport with their own imaginations," who 
flatter themselves that it must have taken place in the ordinary course of 
human affairs, and overlook the many convincing proofs of the superin- 
tending direction of sjiperior wisdom, in the whole combination of circum- 
stances which contributed to bring about the Reformation in Scotland 
as well as throughout Emope. How unich are we indebted to those men» 
who under God, were the instruments in effecting it ; who cheerfully jeo- 
pardized their lives, to atchieve a design which involved the fe'icity of mil- 
lions unborn ; boldly attacked the systen) of error and corruption, ibrtified 
by popular credidity, custom and laws, feticed with the most dreadful 
penalties ; and having forced the strong hold of superstition, and pewetra- 
ted the recesses of its temple, tore aside the veil which concealed that 
monstrous idol which the world had so long worshipped, and dissolving the 
magic spel! by which the human mind Has bound, restored it to liberty! 
liow criminal must those be, who, sitting at ease under their vines and 
figtrees, planted^ by the unwearied labours, and watered by the blood of 
these patriots, discover their disesteem of the invaluable privileges which 
they inherit, or their ignorance of the espence at which they were purchas- 
ed, by the most unwothy treatment of those to "horn they owe them ; 
misrepresent their actions, calumniate their motives, and cruelly lacerate 
their memories ! 

Pdtriofs have toil'd, and in their country's cause 
Bled nobly ; and their d^eds, as they deserve, 

Receive proud recompence ? 

But fairer u paths are due. though never paid, 
To those who. posted at the shrine ot truth, 
Have fallen iit her defence. 



-Their blood is shed, 



In continuation of the noblest chim. 
Our claim to feed upon immortal trnth, 
To walk with God, to be divinely free. 
To soar, and to anticipate the skies. 
Yet few remember tliem. 



-Wiih their name 



No bard efiibaims aad saiJctifses his $ong 



APPENDIX. 0:j 

And liislory, so warm on moaner themes, 
I'- told ill this, ISlie exe( rates indeed 
T>Hi {\ laiiny thill doom'd them to the fire, 
lint jjives the glorious sufferers little praise. 

XVI. Page 332. The Scotch Secession^ 

III 1732, iiiore than 40 mini<?ters presented a memorial (o the general as- 
"^■oenibiy speeiiyidji; <ireat deiydions from the eonstitutiou olthe ciiiircli, and 
IMHyina toi M dress. A similar petition Irom several liinidred elders aiid 
piiv.t. riir.stiacs was also then offered; hut tlie assembly contemptiionsly 
eiiiK't! (I ttiat when there was no private presentation to the living, the ei- 
ders aiHl lieritors alone being Protectants, should elect the Minister. This 
act was O! JHPted to by a large number ot the Preachers and their congre- 
gation — as it entirely divested at least 30 to 1 of the people who were not 
landhuld.rs ot their right to chuse their Pastors; and this proceeding was 
dtnonnced as prejndicial to the hop.inr and interest o! tlie church ; ile^trm-. 
five of t!ic l>eop!eN edification ; contrary to the authority of JesosChrisl ; 
and incoiisislpiit witli Apostolic practice, which sanctioned the choice ofel- 
ders and dea<ou, l,y the whole mnltituile of Christians. 

Libeneztr Erskiue, minister of Stirling, tjeing appointed to preach a ser- 
mon before the Synod of Perth, with great boldness enumerated what he 
conceived to be the sins and defections of the church : and among these, 
patronage, and the evils arising from its ligorous exercise, were not iorgot- 
ten. Clerical men have never been famed for being humble and docile 
hearers , noi did the present instance furnish an exception. Instead of 
meekly receiving the word of exhortation, for three days the synod warmly 
disputed concerning the obnoxious preacher ; asid at last determined that 
he should he rebuked at their bar, both for the matter and the manner of 
his sermon. From this decision, twelve inini-leis and two elders dissented, 
and VIr. Erskine appealed to the General A>^sembly ; but here too, he 
found the same reception, for embracing the sentiments of the synod they 
ordered him to be rebuked at their dread bar. Conceiving that he plead- 
ed for the cause of God and truth, Mr. Erskine protested, that without vio- 
lating his conscience, he could not submit to the rebuke, and insisted that he 
should be left at lil)erty to deliver the same testimony on every proper oc- 
casion. Three other ministers William Wilson, Alexander Moncrief, and 
James Fisher joined in his protest. The meekness and gentleness of Christ 
do not appear to have been that day the reigning principles in the assem- 
bly ; for they ordered their commission, at the next meeting to proceed 
against the four brethren, and if they did not retract their protest and ex- 
press their sorrow for it, to suspend them from their office, or even inflict 
severer censure. Mr. Erskine and his adherents remaining stedfast in their 
sentiments, the sentence n f suspension was pronounced against them ; and 
some nr?onths afterwards at another meeting, the same ecclesiastical court 
finding them still, as they termed it, obstinate and impenitent, their relation 
to their congregations was dissolved ; the moderator's casting vote deter- 
mined a point so important i.n its consequences to the Scottish establish- 
ment. Against this sentence too the four brethren protested, insisting that 
the validity of their office as ministers, and their relation to their congrega- 
tions should not be effected by it : and they declared a secession, not (iom 
Ihe constitution of the church of Scotland, to which they professed their ar- 
dent adherence, but from the prevailing party in her judicatories. 

Such was the commencement of a separation from the established church 
which has been ioci easing for fourscoje years, and which is likely to be el 



54 APPENDi^. 

equal duration with the church itself. Nor can it be denied, tha^ tor the 
first halt" Ceutnrj at least of its existence, in proportion to their numbers', 
few sects can boast of so many laborious, faithful, and orthodox m ist.js, 
and intelligent and exemplary private Christians within the p.ile of their 
communion. 

The leaders in the secession were men of eminent piety, unshaken integ- 
rity, deeply concerned for the prosperity of relisioo and wholly d«^vot' ■! to 
the service of Christ. Their preaching was evangelical, an^l the manner oC 
some of them exceedingly popular. But they had studied that part of the 
Gospel which enjoins crucifixion to the world, and keeping at Ihe remotest 
distance from every vice, more than that which inculcates the meekness and 
gentleness of Christ, and the catholic philanthropy which sweetens as well 
as purifies the soul. Their principles of church government w( rt injiuious 
to their minds. VN hi!e the independent derives all his religion both as to 
doctrine and discipline tVom the sacred Scripture, the Scotch presbyterian 
of those days derived a multitude of his ideas from the confession of faith, 
the books of discipline, the acts of the general assembly, and some in addi- 
tion to these from the solemri league and covenant. These at once pervert- 
ed and contracted his heart, and brought into his religious system « multi- 
tude of human ordinances which he regarded as essential parts of divine 
truth : hence flowed a spirit of intolerance, and sourness, and severity. 

Another difficulty arising also from the system of established presbytery, 
Mr. Erskioe and his brethren found in the chaiacter and conduct of many 
of the persons with whom they were assoc'ated in an ecclesiastical body. 
During the loogpeiiod of the church's peace, some were, fiomyear to year, 
entering on the performance of the sacred functions, who were not endued 
with the spirit of their office. But with these men they were obliged to 
associate in their church courts, to unite with them in various parts o! min- 
isterial duty, and to acknowledge them as brethren in the work of Christ, 
Episcopacy is a loose system which exercises little controul over the parson 
of a parish, if he performs what the rubric enjoins. He is required to have 
scarcely more intercoiuse with the neighboring priesthood than is agreea- 
ble to his choice ; and in the meetings of the bishop with the clergy, there 
is no exercise of ecclesiastical authority in which lie is required to take an 
active part in conjunction with his worldly brethren. But presbytery is a 
compact and active system, which obliges a minister to sit md vote in ec- 
clesiastical courts in conjunction with the rest of bis bodv. and to unite 
with the worst of men in carrying into ex«'Cution the decisiotis of their courts, 
however contrary they may he to his own ju 'gmeut. This grievous iircou- 
venience was deeply felt by Mr. Erskine and those who thought with him : 
it was their continual burden, no it was one of the things which led to a 
separation from the established church. 

To prevent an entire separation was at last the wish of those who had 
acted with so much severity; and in 1734 the general assembly decreed 
that the seceding brethren should be restored to the execution of their nffice. 
The seceders would not accept the boon. In 1739 hey were comiiunded 
to appear before the court, and a willingness was expressed to receive them 
again into communion. This offer being rejected, the assembly of th^- fol- 
lowing year deposed them from the ministerial office, as to the exercise of 
it in the church of Scotland 

The seceding brethren were not idle spectators of these proceedings, fm- 
Hiediately after their suspension, they formed th» mselves into a distinct ec- 
clesiastical body, to which they gave tho name ofthe a'Jsociated pre«ibvre.ry, 
and drew up what they called a testimony. < ontiuii-ii a view of their prin- 
ciples, which they held to be tijose of the chnrci) of Scotland in her purity. 
Still, however, they did not lose sight of returoiug to their former stations ; 



Al*FENDiX. 5^ 

but wheij the favour was offered to thrm, in 1739, they were unable to ac- 
cept it : tor by keeping their eyes steadlastly fixed on every thing amiss in 
her, they perceived so many and so great corruptions, that they were a- 
liaid to go back into her eoimnuuiou. After a time, a second testimony 
appealed, comprising an immense mass ot hi^^torical record, detailing the 
sins of the land, and the defections of the church ; and this they made one 
of the standards of the body. JN'ot satisfied wiili these displays of their 
printiples an<l complaints, attt r they were entirely separated from the 
church, in 1743, they renewed with an oath the solemn basne and coven- 
ant, and tiiey went so far as to make it a term oi' ministerial anc Christian 
communion. 

In the course of these proceedings, the active and faithful discharge of 
their ministerial functions presents a iiiore pleasing pi aspect. Mr. Erskine 
and his colleagues bec.ime itinerants and preached throughout the country* 
For this service they were well qualified by their eminent skill in theology, 
the superior purity of their doctrine, and the fervour and energy of their 
elocution. The effect was powerful ; multitudes Joined them, the number 
of tlieir congregations continued yearly to increase, till a check was re- 
ceived by a« unnatural division among themselves. 

While in the excess of their zeal for little thino:<;, and the indulgence of 
scrnpuljNity of coi science, the secedeisha<l procetded to raise high walls 
ol sfpaiation beiwi-en tl cm^eives and all other chiisliuns in the world, in 
1745 the baiieiii! elircts o this contcacted spirit were betray d ir rending 
to pieces ti,eii o.vu bo.y, and producing a sep.ta ijn uh h b« Irayed them 
to the ritiicHle of their eu« iiiies, and covered them wjib dishonour eveo 
in the eyt;s of their Iriends. In the oath required of persons who become 
buiiiesses of corporations in Scotland, 'here is the followiug clause: " I 
profess and allow with my heart the true religion at present professed within 
the reulm, and authorised by the laws thereol. I shall abide by and de- 
lend the same to my life's end, renouncing the Roman religion called 
pauistry." 

This declaration vSome of the seceders conceived to be perfectly consis- 
tent with their principles, because it was tfe pure religion ol the church 
of Scotland wlucti inev profc'ss d they wouirt maintain. Toothers of their 
body it appe:t ed mil wl'ul oe^a ise th^ n.ith w<vs adoinister d by the mem- 
ber^ oithe established chUiCi., an«! mist m' an religion as it ai present exist- 
ed it. ihe establishiiseiit. When the subj* ct was brought belbr(? the synod, 
those who thoiigut the oath lawful wer^ d sirous that forbcaauce might be 
exercised, and no decision made npou it ; and this was carried by a 
majority of votes. The other party would not acquiesce in this arrange- 
ment , but leaving the place, though coiiftssedly the minority, they claimed 
to ti»< mselves the name and powers o! the synod, excommunicated their 
bretnren, and renounced all fellow>hip withtiem. From that time 1746, 
they became two separate bodies, and were known to the world by the 
undignified names of burghers and antiburghers, from their approbation 
or their condemnation of the burgess oath. 

During the course of this period another separation from the church of 
Scotland took place, but on principles directly opposite to those of the 
seceders. The author of it was John Glass, minister ofTealing, a country 
parish in tine neighbourhood of Dundee, who had imbibed the sentiments 
of the independents, but carried them to a degree of minuteness and 
rigour far beyond the advocates for the system, in England and America. 
Though an inveterate enemy to presbytery, he liad not the manlin^^ss to 
quit his living ; but after having for some years tormented and perplexed 
the eccleiastical courts, by modes of reasoning to which they hao alto- 
gether been unaccustomed, be was arraigntd at the bar of the presbytery 



50 APPENDIX. 

oi" Dnndne* and as hi« answers tended rather tc confirm tlian to r"enio?c 
file suspicious of departure from presbyterian principles, lie was cited, iu 
\pji!, 1723, beibre the synod oi' Angns mhI Meanss. He there opeidy^ 
avn.ved bis sentiments concerning the nature and di^cip^i^e of a chrisliaii 
chu'ch ; and being asked whether he ieit himself obliied to publish these 
opinions be answered, " I think mys( If in conscience obii::< <i to (ieclaie 
every truth of Christ, and keep nothing back, but to speak ail the vvi>rdsi 
of this life, and to teach his people to observe all tiuiigs wiiatsiiever he 
comrrmnds, so far as I can nndeistand, thon^lj otMeis may diti'^r Iroai nie 
and 1 may be exposed to hazard for df cluing lijem." The synod then 
pronojmced him deposed from his office as minister oi t!u p uish oi Peal- 
ing : and he published an exposition of the pioposilion " I!. at a coui^rcgaion 
or church of Jesus Christ, with its presbytery is iu it« dis; ipbue subjiCi to 
no jinisdiction under heaven." Notwithstanding all meuis .or nciairrniig 
the Glassites," says Browh, ♦' they obstinately went about pleaching their 
principles in fields or >>treets, or printing pamphlets in favouj ol" them, s» 
that at length the synod deposed Mr. Glass from the office of the holy 
ministry." 

iVlr. Glass was a man of very considerable talents, and illustrated som« 
parts of the gospel with peculiar felicity, simplicity, :.nd puriiy. Though 
differing so widely in his opinion from the scceeders, he equalled or per- 
haps exceeded them in a contracted spirit, in exciudiug all inhov Chrisiiaim 
irom his communion, and in short in confiuing Christidiiily to himself and 
to hi« sect. 

Towards the latter part of this period another sect arose, which took to 
itself the name of the Presnytery of Relief. It derived its origm from the 
tyranny of the church of Scotland, and alone of all tliedivisions iu that 
country can lay claim to the praise of liberality in principles. I'he person 
compelled to be its founder was Thomas Giilespie, minister of Carnock, 
a man of apostolical sanctity and zeal, as faithful to his charge and as 
unblameable in his conduct, as any age can produce. One distinguished 
mark of a true presbyterian, was that a congregation has a right to chotib its 
own minister. But a party in the church was now beginning to prevail, 
of men who carried the law of patronage lo the utmost ligour, and treated 
the sentiments of the people with sovereign contempt. 

In 1752, a candidate being presented by a patron to a parish within the 
bounds of the presbytery to which Mr. Giilespie belonged, the inhabitants 
were unwilling to receive him as their pastor. The business being finally 
brought before the general assembly, they enjoined the presbytery to pro- 
ceed to his ordination. Mr. Gillespie who was appointed to preside on the 
occasion, refused to take part in a service which ho conceived to be contrary 
to the spirit of the Gospel ; and several of his brethren conciUTed with 
him. Far from venerating the pious scruples of a tender conscience, the 
assembly, provoked at their refusal, inflicted ecclesiastical censuies on ail ; 
but poured the full stream of its veugauce on Mr Giilespie'^ head, by 
deposing him from the office of the Christian ministry, and ejecting him 
from his parish. This sentence v^as pronounced, after solemn prayer te 
God and in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. All the blasphemies tor 
twenty years past have notequaJled the prolkneuess of that one act of the 
assembly composed of fhe ministers aud elders of the church of Scotland. 
The deposition of this good man was the commencement of a system of 
ecclesiastical polity, which wUh but little interruption has continued with 
increasing strength to the present time. 

For Mr. Gillespie to have ceased fiom his evangelical labours, on account 
of so unrighteous a sentence, would, in his view been disloyalty to his 
Lord, and cruelty to the souli ot men. He therefore contiqued to preach 



APPENDIX. 57 

• o his congregation at ihrir leqtif^st, hut not in the kirk, and it was hoprd 
iU.it the (lexl 2;'^n('i;il assenilWy would restoic^ jiiin to his charge. Hiit the 
appiicalioii then made on his IjcIuH' was without * H^ct ; nor wti' rf'[)eat 
ed ap;)li';itioM> aflci »v;jrdN more siii('e>siiil ; the same baleful in(i;ience 
which deposed Inm still ^i)ntiiMied to hf.u sway. 

All hoj»(Js o( his rrstor;i!ion being l)ld>ted. his hearers procured for hira a 
place of worship in a ncigli!)»)!iriui town ; and he continued nearly six y; ars 
to minister to his coii;;!T2 iiit)!i, niu-oiinctted and alone. But in IToli h« 
was joined ()y Thomas Boston wiio rosione«l his ch.wj^e in the church ot" 
Seo.lajid ; an*- Ihc'V iniiled as latlicis oithe new denoininition. the Pres- 
bytery of Relief. Tijey proressc,<J to maiot lin the principles ol'the chin-ch 
ol JScotlantI in their ptiiily ; tlu'y ivere willing to hold cojnmunion with all 
the good ministers and pii\;ite 4 h!i<ti;uis iij the establishment ; and th^^ir 
avowed design was to aif:)r..i rehei'tu shv\\ pari^hesas had ministers imposed 
on Ihem by law contrary to tlu ir »v ili. asd whicli did not wisli to be fetter- 
ed with the chains w[ii;-h tii.-; scci>l>is had forged (or their adhcr* nts. 
lioston w.is as popular a^ G:!it<piu was ^luul ; and in consequence oftiieir 
catholic pi'iuciples and eviuielicd pr^Mchiu.:!, the number of their fo!l!)»v- 
ers increased from yeartoyoar. This wa-; the uronud, which had Mr. Ers- 
kineand his C(dlea£;ues occupied in their se(•e^sion, wouhl h.ive couciiiatet* 
to them vast multiuuies oi' tiie members oC the establishnient, and rendered 
their labours and iutlaence juure cxteuaive and beneficial. 

XVII. Page 334. The present state of the Protestants, 

To those men of God who we;e the instruments of the Reformation 
from popery ; and to the pious rulers. John. Eiectoi of SaJfony, and Ed- 
Kanl the sixth of Englaiid, who pKuuotcd (he cause in their dominions 
from the purest principles, itisdiffindtto o;ive adequate praise. But it 
has not been sufficiently considered that liie method employed by the a- 
postles in planting Christianity, is widely (iilleienl from that wldch was a- 
dopted in most of the countries wjiich icruTunced the comanniion ot Rome. 
In the former case, none were a.lioitti <i into the church of Christ, but such 
as made a credible profession oi'llicir i;ii!!i, without compulsion or restraint. 
In the latter, thechange in mo>it coiuitiies was proiiuced in gieat part by lihe 
JiaL t»i"!he civil autliorities. Hence a.nliitndes '^maraeeil the new religion, 
from motives which IJie Scriptures corrdemn. Many of the great ajid noble 
bee iine Piolestants from an eazerness to share in the ample spoils of the ■ 
Uomi-i-i Cliurch. or to acquire tiie iavour of the cotut, or to avoid the evil 
co;!seq:ienees of refusing to comply with the will oi' the sovereign. As to 
the niass of the people, swarfos of th« m became converts to the new reli- 
gion as it Was called, not Iron) choice, but from necessity and constiaiat — 
from being compelled lo attend on the se; vices performed by the teaclier, 
wham the higher powers liiong t proper to constitute their guide in sacred 
things. 

In Scotland and the other nations, win re the reformation comineDced 
with the zealous labours of holy men of God ; and was disseininated by the 
same means from city to < ity, and Ircm vilf:2:e to viiiage, wlihont any co- 
operation or countejiaiice of the crin^titnted authorities, tjiere was a far 
greater nun>ber of Protestants from piiuriple, as well us a higiker degree of 
viiai piety. Yet even llicre, the cxient was far more liii>ited ; a^id the 
establiskment Protestants — per>Oiis who liom indifference to divine truth 
will coid'o-m to thedomiivant lelgion . i the count! y whatefer it may be — 
were far more wumerous than isgeiicraliv suj.'poscd. 

Since the days oi' Dioclesian t!ie la<l gieal pagan Em[)eror, and persecu- 
tor 0!' (he Ch!istiaus, no event, has taken olacc, which fojr its beneficial iu- 

a 



58 . APPENBIX. 

fliience, can be cottrpared with the Reformation froitf Jiopery. From the 
hour of the death of the last minister who was converted to the faith by the 
prfiacbing of the apostles and evangelists, there was not so clear a delinea- 
tion of the doctrines of the Gospel by any of the ancient tiithers of the 
Church, as has been presented by the Relbrmers, and those of the same 
mind who succeedeed them. Nor were there in the same long space of 
time, private Christians so enlightened, so judicious, or more devoted than 
those who had been members of Protestant churches. The Reform;! tion 
laid the foimdation ot a fair temple to Jehovah, by the restoration of the 
pure doctrines of the Gospel : to build on this tbundation was the employ- 
ment of the following generations. The Reformers, next in praise to the 
evangelists who assisted the twelve in their labours, after they had served 
their generation, by the will of God, entered into glory. With their lile, 
the wider propagation of Protestantisnii! ceased; and not a country in Eu- 
rope, not a piovince — nay it may be questioned if one city — from the year 
1580 to the present day, has been added to the Protestant communion. 
The men who immediately followed them, lost the spirit of propagation of 
their principles ; and sat down as parish ministers, whose labours were cir- 
cumscribed by a certain geographical line. That which Remained popery 
at that period, continues popery to the present hour. What is yet more re- 
markable—in many places where part of the inhabitants of a district or 
town or parish were not convened from the old superstition, to that super- 
stition they remain still wedded. 

In process ol time, what might naturally be expected took place. The 
peaceful state of the church ni different countries, accompanied with the 
emoluments and hot^ours of an establishment, drew into the eeclesiastical 
body a numerous class of men (lestilute of the spirit of their oHlce, under 
whose unskilful and lukewarm services the glory of the Reformation decay- 
ed. 

Tn the northern part of Germany, where the Relormation first lifted the 
standard of opposition to Roirse, tiie state of religion is iar Irom prosperous. 
The spirit of tie world, and what tends to foster it—the spirit of error, of 
destructive error, has taken extensive possession of the colleges, {he pul- 
pits, and as a natural consequence, of the hearts of the mass of the people. 
Glorious exceptions there are of professors in their universities, of ministers, 
and private christians, wh t continue stedfast in the faith, and zealous for the 
Redeemer's glory ; but alas, they are comparatively iew. In the south, 
the proporti|t)n of those who adhere to the pure principles of the Reforma- 
tion, is mor^ considerable ; and religion is in a more flourishing state j but 
not equal to what it formerly was. Of the northern kingdoms, Denmark, 
Norway, and Sweden, in which the Lutheran system was established during 
the wonderful events of the sixteenth centnry ; a dreadful insensibility to 
vital godliness has tak^n plafcamonga very large portion both of the 
clergy am! laity ; and while attention is paid to prescribed forms, the spirit 
oficligion is at the lowest ebb ; and while cold indifference has widely ex- 
tended its dominion, no vigorous efforts are making for a revival ; heresy 
too, has spread its mortal poison among them. h\ the Protestant cantons of 
Switzf-rlandare to be found many eminent ministers, and many zealous 
ehristiaiis in private life, who are labouring to promote the Redeemer*s 
cau^e : but evangelical piety is by no means diffused so extensively through 
the mass of the people, and perhapsof the teachers too, as it was a century 
ago. Geneva, once the glory of Protestantism, and the seat of pure reli- 
gion has now lost its pre eminence : Calvin is fastened to the stake, and 
Se; vf^tus sits in the professor's chair ; and wherever his sentiments are 
taught, vital godliness takes its flight ; the fire of d-eyotion is extinguished ^ 



APPENDIX. 59 

and all becames cold and frozen, Jifce the eternal snows of their oclglibour- 
in^Alps. 

Reformed France stripped of every religious privilege, lay bioken on the 
wheel of persecution for a century and more ; and besides the torin^Mit of 
her suffering, the injury snstaiuwl as to knowledge, principles, and sanctity 
cannot be expressetj. As Protestant Germany is <Iivided into numerous 
principalities, Holland may be considered as occupying the second tank a- 
mong the relorinod countries of Europe. In proportion to its population, 
no laifcd has produced a longer list of eminent divines; and there have been 
trom genenitioa to generation multitudes of inie ibllovvers ot Christ in pri- 
vate life. SliJI many able and faithful ministers are labouring ih re with 
.ardour au(i uith siu^cess : still many zealous disciples in civil ivtatimis are 
adorning the doctrine of God their Saviour. 

The island of Great Britain can boast of a larger multitude of persons 
professing tiie Protestant religion than any other country in Europe. In 
England, from the era of the Reformation, notu ilhstaiuliiig muiy obstacles, 
there was ibr a whole century a gradual pi ogress ot re;>l religion, and a 
gradual iucrcase of faithful pastors and pious people. Tlie exclusion of 
two thousand ministers from their parochial charges foi' conscience' sake, 
checked the growth ol" piety in the eslablisjiment lor almost anollior century. 
T.^iese confessors, and tiiose who siureeded them in their voinutiiry religious 
societies, were the men who tltinng the greater part of (his Litter period, 
Jcept aiivfc the sacred fire on the altar of God in tlie southern part of the 
isle, giuce that time, the vigorous efibits of an increasing body of pious 
ministers in the established church ; and the cojitinued exertions of a more 
(uinterous host of dissenters and iijethodists are from year te» year spreading 
the triumphs of the cross more extensively in every district of tiiat land. 

Scotland, which has, since the Reformation, sent n)ore saints to heaven 
that! any country in Europe of the same population, wivs a region of storms 
both ecclesiastical and civil, lor more than a century alter that period ; but 
religion continued to flourish. \t the restoration it sustained an injury the 
most seveie, and suffered a persecution more biUer than words cajj des- 
cribe, which ceased not to increase till the revolution in 1C88. From 
that time the church of Scotland enjoyed days of peace and of spiritual 
prosperity ; and when abaiit fifty years afterwards, from a long state of 
ease and rest, religion had considerably decay eti, God in mercy raised up 
some zealous me»», who. thougii they separated from the established church, 
and formed various new denominations ; yet preached the Gospel in its pu- 
rity, converted a multitude of souls, and contributed greatly to advaince^the 
cause of Christ. 

At the present day an increasinu number of faithful ministers in the 
church of Scotland ; and a multitude of preaciiers of different communions, 
both presbytcrian and congregational, are exerting themselves to extend 
the boundaries of the Messiah's spiritual kingdom in that highly favoured 
land, in a word, through the whole of Great Britain there is an evident 
advancement in knowledge and piety irom year to year, and the prospects 
for the time to come are unspeakably pleading. 

Besides these Protestant nations in Europe, there is one in another quar- 
ter of the world, and hut one, which proft'ssis ilie same faith. Hear and 
mourn : in Asia, that immense vvoild o'soii:-, : in ^\frica's widely and far 
extended surface there are none ; and in Ainerica, which stretches itself 
almost from pole to pole, there is but one. l'role:lant nation ! Of moie 
than seven hundred miiliens of the hunuit; race wliich those three quarters 
of tiiegiobe contain, search for tlie Pi ou\s: arj ccmmunities there ; and 
when you have travelled through every re^iua and climate, it jvill be found 
that there is but one nation rising abave tlie piiny nui.'ioc!- Si a million of 



60 



APPENDIX. 



people, Avlirre the rpibrmed rFliffion r;ui hr ra]Ip(l tlif re!io;inn of the 
coiiMtrv. This one soria! bixly is the jVortii A!*iMicaii HeptiuTic. At the 
time.oi'tlie Rvi'orinntion, tude f),ig;iiis onfy n-fip thinly sciiltrred over thft 
iininf'Mse lorests : iifuv, ,h nit ion aiinost pqnai to Britain in popniation, 
dwf'Iis thcr<% — in (!ivn)p kno\v!e(!2;p at-.d nnlfignc/! piety not inierior ; anr! 
movinq: Cnrward uilh a nipii |;ro2;if>'^ to siip< i ifMity. To ihese ir'^ions of 
P(Otf«tantisin, ad! '.iip coloiilf-^ i'ornud !>v ils "rnarii s in Afin^ritM, AirisM, 
and A>ia ; and the (5iis'sio!u.ui*"v srsit ovd by tlum lo brSn^; th.- heaiiien and 
unenliglitened nations ol ijie woildto the obcdittice oi' Christ. 

XIX. P.sge 34 1. Ca.'i'i/i and Sochms contrasted, 

No event ronjoinod with the Rrformation has Inrnislu'd «o nmny jnate- 
ri.ds I'or eainnmy, as Caivin's conneriion witli the dealh oi Servetus. Ar- 
tniniansaju! [liim.initaiians have, combined to ani^ivjont the i/jnoiriinv, iruUr 
vvhieh thry have hoped to l)!iry tJiat s[)jendi{i Relonnri'* serviees and Intel 
ligenee. Bsit they )iave not been just and i:np'ri;;il in their censures. Ad- 
fnit that Calvin «ms .uni cvau^elie.il in ids saiH-tion o! titat rbsiird mode Jo 
convert an infidel bhisphemer, uas Siicinr.s more phiiuithropie ? 

Soeinns most incor.sislently hut stretsnou^ly dfffnric'd ihe religions wor- 
ship (»(' onr Lord Jesus Chri.-t ; Uiis praeiicT Fiaeeis rfcivi<hs (he Iln- 
manitariat) siiperintendaiit (tppnsed, us ouMe idu!,iiiy. The eon{,roversv 
ra2;ed with so much a<-i!inony„ that the Prinee of Ti ansyivania imprisoned 
Davides, wliere throd^h ii)e ri2;o!n- ot his siifrenags, he died. 

This aet of perseenlion is passed over >iienf !y by tho-^c nho keep np a 
ronstant deafening onlery ajramst the mnrderensCalvin, I'or his condnet to- 
wards J5ervetns. It It !>« alleged th:tt Soelnus leit Davides totheeivil pow- 
er, the same exense may be m idf; To-- Calvin. When it is asserted that 
this Relbi.ner ruled in (?en< va, so (hat the a( ts of the government were hin 
O'.vn. it iriay be replied, that the government oiwe banished Calvin him«elf, 
tvlso declarer, before Servetus eaine to Geneva, that it wotdd not be in his 
power to save him : so that his inlhieuee was little more than that of the 
Soeinians i;i Transyivani i, wiio ?)ad aecjniieti sueh an a«eend;'.!tey that Ihe 
mat! \Thoni they pei-srcut(;d was sent to die in a ja;l. Calvin lahonred to 
dissuade a stranger, who was viewed wilij horror, irotn cotning to a place 
where t!ie laws, which had been enacted Ions: before by the emperor, wonUl 
consign him to the (lames ; but the Socinians saw their brother, the snper- 
jntendant oi their chnr<hes, runlejJ fiom his ho no jus to a dnngeot), and 
ivhat efforts did they make t.> save him ? The deatli ofSei veins. w?ilch 
wascrnel indeed, was ndlicted Wn- \vhal all tln^ lielormers. as wf I! asCahln^ 
deesned damnable heresies, worthy of death, ih.e b|;i^phciny of degra<iing 
the incjrnAte God to an ordinary man, his deaih \o n:ere nK\r!-,rdom. andhfs 
worship to idolatry. i>nl (tie Sociniasis who are supposed to outstrip all o- 
t!>ers in hberal principles, bnr.ted Davides to prison from political motives, 
lest the odium under which they laboured should he auament< d. Socimis 
publicly stigmatized the adherents of Davides as semi-jev^s. and luged the 
unfortunate man to renounce his error ; l)nt privately he acknonhdged 
that it was a mere nothing, nay no error at ai!, but a jjroof of fitrotiger faith ; 
so that Davides was made a sacrifice ttot to honest bigotry, but lo mere fi- 
nesse. The aggravated guilt of h^ocinns is, indeed, no excuse lor that of 
Calvin ; but it may suffice lo expose iUi^. conduct of his followers, who ad- 
duce the crime (d'the latter, as a proof of the blaekness of his character and 
#»f the intolerant tendency nfhis doctrines. 



APPENDIX. 61 

XX. Page 353. The Baptismal Contrnvtrsy. 

Tlu" (loi^mi ofc!o-? rofnmunion, roiin(l<^d upon the prpmi^rs. that im- 
uietsioo (»niy iw hiiptisur ■>()('. that adults um the only proj>ti shf-j* its ol tl.e 
onliiiaiifo. is so a'd'uMieis! n !ts iiDavoi({,iiil«> u.'.cifnce, the » \t«nii(iatiOH of 
all the <if>noi!.!- :hnii>. ol viri l. m^ tl.nt nn. now, or < vec huvc t\isti(l, ex- 
cept the iiyptisr .: iit i\ is ^v;..-».y ot inquiry whctljcr such an outrageous 
pros( ripli.Mj can ^;f)sibly be veiifi^d ? 

It is a eiuions but luideniable lact, Ihiit the fiist appearance oi'a Baptist 
cl)ri>«tiin community *va= in the sixteenth c* ntnry, alter the coniinrncenient 
«l the Rclbrmation. ' if there be any truth in history, the Baptists' opin- 
ions are wholly modern, and unknown to antiquity.' • It is said that 
amono: the VValdenses there vv^re some Baptists ; but the firsi notice of 
thrtn as a distinct community, is about the lime of ttie Reformation by Lu- 
ther.' 

' No less than ninety different heresies are said to have sprung up in the 
three first centuries. Irenseus, Phi!astriu>, Au.stin. an<S Theodoret, urofc 
catalojj;nes of the several sects of christiixus they had heard of ; but none of 
them mention any that denied infant baptism, except those who denied all 
bi^ptism." Here we iiave a very curious fact — the first tise of a baptist 
Cv.iiifnnnity — in the sixteenth century, after the commencement of Luther's 
111 formation. 

liow ss it possible to account for this remarkable circumstance ? It is 
replied, that the si/stem nf th'^ Anti judo bapists is not supported by even 
one Icxt of scripture, one pattern, one precedent, or one example in the 
ivord oj God. 

If t^is be evident there will be nothing very surprising:— that (here should 
be a lapse of more than fifUen centuries of the christiiin era, belore a single 
baptist community made its appearance in the world. For who can wonder 
for a moment at the very late commencement of a community which has not 
ill scripture, either precept, pattern, piec>:dent, or example to rest upon 1 

Tisereis no example in sciiptnre in favour of the baptists. 

Whenever an example is lo support a pi ictice, it is indispen?ah!y necessa- 
ry that ttie example and the practice sh >uld both be of one and the same 
kind. For if the example be of one kuid,and the practice of another kind, 
— tJie practice is not founded upon the example — !ior does the example 
give any support to the practice. One kind ol example can never support 
another kind of practi<'e ; for it is no ex.imple to the practice , siieh an 
cximple and such a practice being two different and distinct things. 8o 
when things are thus circumstanced, that the practice does not ag;iee with 
the example, the practice, in this case, has no example at all ; but is purely 
a practce without an example. And this is precisely the condition of the 
Baptists at this moment — they have neither precedent nor example for 
their practice in any part of scripture. 

It is evident from scripture, that all the adults, whose baptisni we read 
of, were the first of their families who embraced the christian religion. But 
what is the practice of the Biptlsts ? — They baptize all adults promiscu- 
ously, whether descended from chiistian parents, or Heathens, or Jews. 
But scripture examples only go to the latter cases. Heathens and .Jews ; 
nor is there any example whatever for the former, the descendents of chris- 
tian parents : consequently it appears that the baptists follow no example 
at all, and their practice, in relation to scripture, is completely without 
precedent. 

All the examples of scripture are in favour of those called Pedo-baptists 
What ad • Its do these baptise ? — Surely none but heathens and Jews, and 
Such as have not been before baptised. This the pedo-baptisls do, aud the 



62 



APPENSiX, 



apostles did no more. Herein we have the necessary agreeoaent betweetj 
the example and the practice — they are both of one and the same kind, 
Not as in the case of the baptists, in which there is no correspondence be^- 
tvveen the example and the practice. In their case they entirely differ : 
the example is this— and the practice is that—and there is not' the least 
agreement between the two. 

What shall we say to the baptisms of households ? — Do not these look 
with a favourable aspect upon Pedobaptists ? What has been just said has 
very nearly put the BaptiNts and their system out of the bible. We shall 
now proceed to throw them entirely out. From the examples we go to 
the word and precepts of Scripture. 

How are persons to be baptized ? — By immersion only, say the Bap- 
tists : nothing is baptism, but immersion only. Now no passage in any 
part of scripture will prove this. 1. Can it be proved that the word 
Baptism itself means immersion only ? This is utterly impossible ; nay, 
the contrary is true, that it does i)ot mean immersion only. 2. Can It be 
proved that any one person, whose baptism we read of in the scripture 
was immersed ? — It cannot possibly be proved. 3. Can it be proved, that 
any one, said to have been baptized, was at all so much as in the water ? 
No man in the world can prove it. 

1. Can it be proved that baptism is immersion only 1 Who can prove 
that the terra baptism means immersion, and nothing else but immersion ? 
Could Dr. Gale do this ? He was able to have done it if any one could ; — 
but he proved the contrary, and so overthrew himself; for meeting with a 
passage in Aristotle, in which the thing baptized was not put into the water, 
but the water came npon it, he said 'the woid Baptise, perhaps, does not 
so necessarily express t!ie action of putting under water, as in general a 
thing being in that condition, no matter liow it came so.' — Another pas- 
sage came in his way in which the thing baptized was opl} partially wet : 
bis assertion was, ' That the word does not always necessardy miply a total 
iqamersion of the thing spoken of, all over.' These tworthings put together 
amount to this : that a thing is baptized if the element come upon it ; and 
if it come «nly on one part it is baptized. Dr. Wall laid hold of this ; and 
shewed to the world, that while Dr. Ga!e contended for immersion only, 
he held fast the mere word but completely lost the thing. If baptism 
meant immersion only, there could be no different or difft i ing baptisms ; 
but there are differing baptisms, so not immersion only. In Hebrews 9 : 10, 
the apostle speaking o( the ablutions among tlie J'"s, calls them divers 
washings. The true meaning of the first word {^differing or different — 
Jlom. 12 : 6. Thus it is, ' biiptisms diiR riuii,' or different ; and this 
directly overturns the sentiments of ;'he Baptists, who contend that baptism 
is immersion only. Had Origen thought as the B^ipti^ts do, he would not 
have said, 'that when Elijah ordered water to be poured on (he wo»>d, the 
wood was baptized.' Ntr would the seventy tran^lators have said, that 
Nebuchadnezzar was baptized, — w'lich they do, when he was wet with the 
^ew of heaven. Much less would the scripture have called the potiring 
out of the Holy Ghost Baptism. Nor can it be proved that the word Bap' 
tism, in the New Testament does ever mean imviersion^ we will noi say 
only, but ai all; and if not iminersion only, the baptist principK is lost. 

2. Can it be proved that any one person in the New T'^stament was 
immersed ? There are seven instances of baptisms, whicJi uive some con- 
nection with place and circumstance^: : — The baptism of Jesus at Jordan-r 
the baptizing at Enon — the baptism of the eunuch — oi ^aul— of Cor- 
nelius — of the jailor — and the three thousand in Jenisnlem. Of these 
instances, three were in the open air, and at streams ot water, two in pri- 
vate houses, one in a jail, and one in a city. If we look for preof for the 



IPPENDUC. ^3 

imraersion of any one, it must be from the fiist three instances ; bui here 
is HO prool at all that any one was in»mersctl. It is true, here were per- 
sons, ami there was wat^r ; but whether any person was immersed in the 
water, there is not a word sahl. All that can be said, and all that the 
most sanguine can say, world he this, ' It may be, — it is likel} — it is 
highly probable — I am apt to think so.' Such lorms of speech shew there 
is no proof; and that the best is merely presumption ; but if we attend to 
llie other instances, the private houses, the jail, and the city, there is 
neither proof nor presumption ; or, if there be any presumption upon the 
case, it is entirely on the other side, that is, that there was no immersion 
practiced; and the sum of a!) is this, tliat in the first instances there is not 
the least proof : and that in the others, there is not the least presumption. 

3. Can it be proved that any person baptized was so much as in the 
water at all? Tlie putting of this qaestion may appear singular to some, 
who wouhl be ready to say — C:in any thing be more evident than this? — 
Did not our Lord eorae up out of Jordan ? Did not Philip and the eunuch 
go down into, and come up out of the water ? The truth is, that wheth- 
er they went into {the water or not, depends upon three small words; 
them, two are used in the New Testament ahinidred limes, to signify /rom ; 
and the first as often to signify to ; and they necessarily signify no more 
than to the water and/r^ m the .rater ; so there is no proof that any one 
person baptized was in the water at all. 

But possibly some Baptist may say, that the Apostle tells ns in Romans 
6 ; 4. ' We are buried with him by baptism.' True, * 63/ baptism'-- ■baptisn;> 
may be the means of our burial witii Cijrist, whatever may be ihe form 
of it Belbrfc any conclusion can be drawn from this text three things 
must be adjusted.— !. Does the upostle speak of the baptism of the Spirit, 
or of water baptism ? The probability i«, from the context, that he 
actually speaks of the baptism of the Spirit;— and if so, the Baptist 
Inference is at an end : for the mode of this baptism was pouring. 2. But 
suppose the apostle to speak of water baptism ; does he allude to any 
iiiode ot administration ? It is probabh; he had no allusion to any mode at 
all. When he says ' baptized into Christ ' or * baptized into his death,' 
he does not seem to allude to any mode. But 3, Suppose he does al- 
lude to some mode ; what mode does he allude to ? If there be an allu- 
sion to any thing in burial, it may be either to the putting of the body 
into the enrth, or to the throwing ol the earth upon the body ; which would 
resemble suffusion. If all these queries cannot be adjusted, and their ad- 
justmnnt is pertipctly precarious, the inference of the Baptists from this pas- 
sage is lost. 

There is no passage in all the scriptures to evince immersion only, or to 
prove any immersion at all. or that any one of the baptized did so much a? 
gp into the water. And now there resnains but one thing more to demos, trate 
that the baptists have not a passage, precept, precedent, or example, in 
all scripture to support their system. 

Ti)e Baptists deny infant baptism — But have they any thing in scripture 
for this ? — Not one passage : but they deny it by inference. If the 
inference b«= good, it is sufficient. Of what kind is the inference, and from 
what i** it drawn? A Baptist will tell us, that the scriptures require faith 
in t hose who are to be baptized ; as in this *' If thou believest, thou raayest." 
So likewise in other passages. Infants, they say, cannot believe, therefore 
they are not to be baptised. This is their inference — but a single remark 
will completely destroy it. It is the manner of Scripture, when any thing 
is enjoined as a mean to an end, it is enjoined upon those subjects only who 
arp naturally capable of it ,- but those subjects who are naturally incapable 
•f the mean, may, notwitbstanciing, have a right t» the end. For example ; 



64 



APPENDIX. 



♦» V Ihat believeth shall he. saved " The mr.an, believelli, i<s !;> order to 
the end, saved. Now, according to the above remark. i!i!Hnts who are 
isicapabi*' ofthe77iean, iiny ytt enjoy the cnrf; tliey rjav be savod. H\t 
aecordiJigto the inCereiice of the Biptists, iufauts u'lnst all be let. So in 
Hiiolher instance,— ' if any will not work, neither shall he eat.' But it" 
infants cannot work, which is the mean ; yrt they mxv ett. whieh is the 
end. Bnt npon the Baptists' principle, it does not toil >.v timt thev shoidd 
£G<— beranse they have no wiii to work ;~-so all infants niiiy as well be 
kept sroiji meat as from baptism. As this in'irence is as bad as ;iny in'^r- 
ence can he, and as they have uothiiig better o brin;^, they arc in iact com- 
pletely out of the Bible. 

In this way we account for this singular historical docntnont, th.tt the 
Bapti«ts never existed as a community tili the stxteenrh o ntury. An i we 
presmne that no better reason can be given for tie very r< cn>t rxistcnce 
of the Baptists as a body, than by shewing that tluy icive netiher text, 
precept, precedent, or example iu any part of scripture to suppoit their 
exclusive »ystcm. 

XXf. Page 354. The unbroken succession. 

If any persnn wislies to understand thissnbjfct. he is referred to the 
standards of the Episcop;ii cluireh ot Engi.isui; xUt^ k mityfor fVhiisvnday, 
Part II. ; to Isaac's ecclesiastical claims investigated; and lo **ii iste.i's 
thoughts on the Ang\can and Imeiican-Anglo churches, a H f rarch 
pleading for the divine ri-ht of Episcopacy by the regular descent from 
Peter ; and a stiff Baptist boasting of the unbroken snccessron ordippin<^ 
from John the Lor.i's loreruiuier, constitute the most wonderful anomaly 
in principle, and the most pel liect identity in argument, in the thtolo"ical 
world. 



XXII. Page 364. The Independents. 

Because many of the Congregalionalists in this Union, have lately 
diverged from evangeii al truth; persons south cf New England generally 
believe, that the English Dissenters diie heterodoxical in their tlieoJ(»2i. 
cal sentiments; and because some names aie of so much imporlance in 
the scale or religious controversy, especially upon the qtiest ions ol ecclesi- 
astical government and discipline, others carefully conceal the fact, that 
they were the most decided opponents of all assumptions derogatory to 
the undivided supremacy of Jesus Christ as Head of the church. This is 
not only disrespectful, but injurious to their memory ; for neiuly all our 
most popular religious writers are the Puritans or their sufcrssors, the In- 
peudents and Baptists ; Owen, Baxter, Bates, Howe, Flavel, .Manton, 
Calamy, Chariiock, Henry. Edwards, Keach, Dod.lridge, Watts, Kidglcy, 
Gill, Stemiett, Harmer, Booth, Williams, Buck, Huller, Buidt r, Jay, 
Collyer, Foster and Bogue; with a mtdtitude of others who will continue 
to edify mankind as long as the English tauguage shall be understood by the 
inhabitants of our globe. 

To them, under the Holy Ghost, we are deeply indebted for the raosti 
sublime knowledge; and therefore let honour be appropriated to the 
memories of the pioneers »vho haveopeued the road, to civil jind religious 
freedom for all the tribes of Adam. For it is manifest ; that llie mosii msl 
who adopt the Congregational tbim of government in the church oiCiuist, 
are the most assimilated upon this particular topic to the primitive Ciuis-I 
tians ; and it is a memorable fact demonstrated by the unvarying coursel 
of ecclesiastical history, that the prosperity of the spiriiuuL kingdona off 



APPENDIX. 65 

the Redeemer lia^ be^n exactly coinraeusnrate ^ritii the predominance and 
extension ofthe fundamental do<:tiines of tli<^ f*uritans. This result how^ivep 
might naturally he anticipaUMl ; when we rt'infinber. tlut it was i ite in 
the secoiui century, heiore ecclesiiisticLiI councils, vrhich bodies have b:.ea 
the jraiul corruption of Chriitiaiiity. "V-'ve assembled. U is true, that 
lite Pope and his adlierents hy distorlitiu; j)iain epit'itts. contend that the 
iiieetiiigat Jernsalem recorded in Aots 15 ; was tl^fjirst Christian Cmoicil; 
hut tnat council »vas o(dy the cIiriNiiios of Jerusalem, with some tr ivoilln^ 
brethren "come together i.-; Uie chinch ; lor the churches in those 
aucieitt times, were eutiieiy independent ; none of them subject to loy 
tbrei;:M jurisdiction, but eacji one governed by its own rulers an.! its 
own laws. For thouih the ciiurches foundetl by the apostles, had tnis 
particular deic.rence shown thoin, that tiiey were wonsnltrd in ditfi- 
cult and doubtiul cases ; yet tlipy htd no Jmidical authority, no sort 
ol .supremacy over the others, njr the |paVc rigiit to enact laws for them. 
NoLbJMjT oil the contrary, is nvn-e evid. nt Ihan the perfect equality that 
reigned among the primitive churches ; nor dors there even appear, in ihis 
first century, the smaileit trace oCtUat assooiasion of provincial churclics, 
(rom which councils and metropolitans derive their orij^iu." 

XXIII. Page 391. Tbe modern denominations. 

It was not deemed n( cessary to introduce at large, the history ofthe pro- 
gress oi the Methodists ; excep': in a few instances, they have enjoyed alithe 
privileges of toh ration, and their annals are chiefly the catalogues ot their 
increase in ministers, societies and mead)ers Besides the subject is so 
generally understood, as to render a more minute detail not requisite. 

f^ The following note must be subjoined to the remarks on Pages 348 

ando'i.9. 

From the statement of the J^yg ;7omfs of controversy, between the Synod 
ofDort and the Arminians ; it might be inferred, that Mr. Wesley, Mr. 
Fletcher, and their tbllowers, admitted all the dog^rias which had been enu» 
merated, in the same sense, with the pimitive Remonstrants. This vvas 
not intended ; but as the passage in its present arrangement is liable to mis- 
construction, it must be observed, that whatever may be the sentinients 
of individuals, or however irreconcilable their avower' opinions are, in 
the judgment of a cputrovertivt the (ioct ine, that mankind by nature are 
totally and universally depraved, and thereibre guilty in consequence of 
Adam's transgression, is Uie authorized creed of the modern methodisis ; 
who on the third point, page 347, substantially coincide with the Calviisisls. 

An omission occurs respeiting the Meth.odist Missionary Society, which 
it is proper to supply- Tlse foitowiug sentence should be iu'^erted, a ter 
'' irea/," page 420. Their energies t)ave hitherto been confin<-d to the 
newly settled portions of this Union, with the exception of a Missionary 
lo the Floridas, another to the Wyandott huiians, and a station among the 
Creeks, on the Chatahoochee ; they publish the Methodist Magazine. , 

^^An aditinnal remark, should be inserted on page 406, immediately 
after is dissolved. 

This general statement adnuts of exceptions, because iu Connecticut 
and other parts of New Englaiid, the Coegre^itiohalists, have oat only 
^Associations of Ministers ; but also Consnciati ais of Ch':rihes. which 
assemble at stated periods, and are composed of the Minister and a 

9 



66 APPENDIX. 

Dt^legate appointed by each church. Neifher of thrse bodies claim or 
excicisf any jurisdiction over the separate coi.gregiiti^^ns. and in Ciises 
of difficultj are mere!)' councils of advice ; th>' grand di^tinrtion hftwpen 
them consists in their objects ; the Associations are designed to psoniote 
unity, affection and co operation among tl>e rainuters, tiie f tin is. in ad- 
dition to this effect, are intended to perpetuate the purity, the ccnjnninlon 
and the prosperity of the Chi -ti in soceties which are thus comociated. 

^:f' The ensving paragraph was undesignedly omitted ; it should have 
been inserted. Page 413, prior to the article Typographical. 

Colleges constitute a very important department of the means organized 
to perpetuate knowledge . btit the prosperity oi one division of these supe- 
rior institutions, is iisdissohibly connected wilh the exiension of the Re- 
deemer's kingdom : the seminaries JW theological studies Theuuiver'jities 
and colleges where all tlie sesences are iucorporated in the course, are 
not hereby intended ; but those oidy which are exclusively devoted to the 
pieparation of students for the more puhiit exercises of the gospel ministry. 
The academies which are consecrated to this peculiar object, arose snjjse- 
qucnt to the Reformation ; and it is supposed, that they ori£inate<i among 
the English Nonconformists ; who being by law exchided from all the 
literary advantages, which flowed tVosn thA unirprsities of Oxfor! and 
Cambridge, established them with the express design, to intro<hicf- junior 
Ghristinns to a competent acquaintance with revealed theology Many of 
these seminaries are in the most flourishing state, and are emphatically the 
light of the world. 

The Secession in Scothvnd established two academies ; and the Scotch 
CongregHtionalists have lately organized a very superior seminary for the 
study oTdivinity. In England, the Independents swppo. t six large institu- 
tions of this character ; the Baptists maintain three academical societies; 
and the Calvinistic Methodists, one collegiate course of instruction, in 
Wales, those three denominations also possess seminaries. Bui three 
institutions among the Eufopean Christians are entirely modern : the 
College at Gosport, orgauized by the dissenters, to prepare and qualify 
Missionaries for the Heatheu nations ; an establishment of a similar char- 
acter, under the patronago of the Church Missionary Society ; and very 
prosperous academy in Dublin, expressly founded to ' apacibite the students 
for the arduous employ^nent of disseminating the light and the truth among 
the wretched and benighted papists of that island. Seminaries of the same 
character have also very lately commenced their operations on the Euro- 
pean continent. 

In the United States, besides the partial altentiop which is devoted to 
divinity in the general colleges : several iostitntioos are designated solely 
for theological studetits. The congreg tionalists hace endowed a very 
extensive college at Andover ; the Dutch Reibrmed initiate youth into the 
service o! the church at Brunswick; the Presbyterians have hiuuded a 
large seminary at Princeton ; the Baptists have provided for a theological 
depaitment in Columbia ; and the Episcopalians have also recently orga- 
nized a course of studies connected with Christianity. Of the principal 
denominations, the Methodists alone have not coalesced for the distinct 
education of pious youth for the ministry, who by nature " are apt to 
teach :" as neither of their schools in Europe or the United States is appro- 
priated to a prepa'ation for pulpit instruction. To this catalogue must 
be added as ot vast impoitance in the august work to qualify by preliminary 
tuition, agents for the introduction of the Gospel among the Heathen, the 
Foreign Mission School at Cornwall, which constitutes one of the most 



APPENDIX, fe7 

tnterestino; and variable seminars s now in existence. Respectins; these 
vari'Mis SDiniu's orilJujiiinatioij ; w\[h thf irtinor })!;kus of tuition, ciedieated 
to the same exalted objrit ; every Irirnd ol Zwn will tiervoiidy pray, 
thi't they irii'.y never be adulterated by error ; ;iiifi'iiiiiler the inniienees of 
th. Holy Gliost, tliatllieir process may l>e •> like the sljlning light, vrhieb 
slii«).'th iiuxe aod more;" until the Mplendonrs of the»r piety, geidnf^, 
leariiiufi and inttllioence, eoufinnaily aeeeleiating; tlieirCerce, and expand- 
ing their extent, sh<ill irradiate the world with tlie *' periect day." 

XXIF. Page 432. Religious education. 

Religion will be extensively propagated by the holy and fervent zf'al of 
the teachers ot yonth The number of th^ pious iiistruetors o}' th« youth 
of botli spxes I*; iiiereisini? in a v^ry consior-iaide deo;ree ; and srh'uv they 
are v.dnlonsly attentive to every bruneh of ns( iid and ornamental know- 
le».;i;i% thf^y It: 1 more deeply that it is inenmbent on them to iinstrnet 
tluir scholars in the prhieiples of religion ; and to pre^s lUem home on tlui 
heart as vital springs of sentiment and action, to torm their character in 
fntnre lile. The beneficial effects of tjieir iab'nrs in ditfnsing relii;lou 
more extensively thioiigh the different ranks in society, caji scarcely be 
estinsated sufficiently high. 

in looking inrwanl to years to come, tiiere is every reason to concinde, 
that piojis instructors oi the rising generition ivil! bf^coKJc stiil mor'^ nir.. e- 
lous ; and a mon cons iler.ible number of the youth ot" both sexes enjoy the 
advantages of a religions education. Tiiere will be a far njore abundant 
mpa«ure of religious knowledge, as well as of holiness and felicity But 
it app.Mrs exceedingly probable, that these will not burst forth all at once, 
like lighfeuing trom the dark cloud at night, which in the twinkling o{ an 
eye renders clear and distinct, objects, which w.^re iniseen beiore ; but 
wil' ratlier resemble the light of the mondng. that from the first tints of the 
dawo nicreases gradually, till the snn pour* his full beams upon ihe earth, 
and forms the perfect day, Such ar^ augmentation lot mental and spi- 
ritual light we may reasonably expect. Its benign operalioa the 
pious te.ichers ofsucceediug generations wifl powerfully Seel, it ^vil! com- 
municiste to them a greater capacity to do good ; — it wi!l increasr tiieir 
en< rgies in then- otilce ; — it will convey their instruetions more powr r uily 
to the iiearts of their pupils ; — and it will render the inducnce ot educalioij 
more efficacious than it has hitherto been, if we suppose such teachers 
ofyouiij widely scattered through a country, how extensive must be the 
fruit of their labours : Christ will have the dew ot the youth, and that in 
sncb a^^oodiy number as to be "accounted to him for a generation. "— 
Tiiese well instructed young people will become heads offamlies, and 
enlarge the lanks oi tiiose who both command and teach their household to 
keep ti<e way of the Lord. The instructors of youth will thus spread abroad 
the triump'js of [■!<= Redeecuer, and advance tire progress ot religion to- 
wards its Millennial glosy. 

Tiiose friends of tiie Redeemer engaged in Sunday Schools wiil contri- 
bute n no mean degree to hasten on the ol<.)iy of the latt r days. The 
careiid instruction of so vast a multitude of children in the priiicipirs of 
purs religion, the 2:''eater part ofwhom would otherwise hiv;^ been entirely 
ignonmt is conferring on the rising generation a fivour olthe noblest kind ; 
will loi'allibiy beget a more intelligent and moia! body ofjjeople ; and will 
in a vast variety of instances produce the peaceable iruits ol lighteousne.'W 
in [!:• ir h( arts ard lives. How poweriul as well ii^s bencfi' ial tht ir infln- 
efjce Lnast be on ih:' -ieoerai propagation ol Christi.mity in ti)f wr^ I/l, \\\\\ 
be sj^euand must he aoknow ledged by all. It is <i c nsidtrali. n nrdch 
should excite no commou feelings in the breast of every Snnday's-school 



68 



APPENDIX. 



teacher : " I am engaged in a service wiiich will aeceterate the progress 
ofro'igion, and qnicken the spe:ed of Ihe cliaiiot of the Gospel iu its course 
to the uttermost ends of the earth." 

XXV. Pasc 433. Relisrious resfrlciio7is. 



Of all the crimes committed acain^t God and his Christ, the chaining; 
down of tfje consciences of the people lo tlie lailhof their r. leis, an I reiu- 
sini^ thf-in liberty of sentiment uisd oi uoiship is the blackest — the most 
heinous in its nature, and the most dosttnctive in its cfi'ijcts. Bv this in- 
tolerance, hundreds of millions oi the human race have fallen short of the 
knowledge and love of"!God and the Rt^ieenier. Such has with some ex- 
cep'ions. been the universa! spirit of the sovernsnents of what is called the 
Christmn rvorld, ahnostto the preseot day. In ndeis who have only the 
dim hghtof nature for their g;ui(ie, we neex\ not therefore wonder to see a 
simifir disposition. With sriet it must be mentioned, that an edict of tlte 
greaifst p.i2;an potentate in t[»e worlsl fnrbHis tiic sacred Scriptures to be 
printed aud circulated in his empire ; the banishment of preachers had bren 
ord'^rpd by a former decree. For a ni;in to shut up hi** dominions against 
the knowledge of the tine God and tjie only Saviour of sinners, an.l thrhid 
its entrance uador pAin of death, is mikins; a he!i ofC.'hina : it is commit- 
tinj a crime which no words of any IniiTmn lan^^^iuige can express. 

Tiie restrictions which have b^vn I id upon religious liberty must be 
taken away. The want of this liberty i-; one of ihe most injurious priva- 
tions that a mortal creature can ieel. In past limes, how jiitle ol it has 
been possessed within the pale even of the IVotestant church. Its value 
will appear from this fact, that religion has fioinished and now fionrisheg 
most, where freedom of conscience is roost enjoyed ; and is least pr<vsper- 
ous where it least exists, — being rendered dwarfish and misshapen by the 
Imrsh constraiat. Utdrappily the rulers of the world have arrogated to 
thetRselves autiiority in spiritual matters ; and have unwisely conceived 
that it belm)ged to them to say who shall be allowed to worship God accord- 
ing to the dictates of his conscience, and who shall not. How many faith- 
ful ministers of Christ, have been hindered by them from preaching the 
Gospel; and what multitudes of people from hearing it out of their hal- 
lowed lips ! How raany of both have been spoiled of fhcir goods, and 
been shut up iu prison because they would not refrain ! Blessed be God 
that tliose days of persecution are past. But at the present time in .«everal 
Protestant countries, the same rig:id severity stiil prevails. In Sweden, 
Denmark, Norway, and some j>arts of Germany, religioijs liberty is still 
unknown : the doii inant sect will pernnt no otl^r lo; ms of worship but its 
own. Happy will it be if the late convulsions iu Europe suffice to confer 
this inesiiiiLible benefit upon the Protestant churc'.f^s ; and render fnrtiirr 
calamities unnecessary. Produced a cliange ninst be ; for with sucii 
chains on the souls of men there can be no Millennium. In order (o the 
general prevalence of religion in a country, the disciples of Christ nnist be 
left at full freedom to worship God according to the dictates of their own 
judgments, and to manage their rel aious concerns in their own way ; for 
b> such a method they will most effectually promote the cause ol Christ. 
Speedily may intolerance cease ! Oh that s|firitual tyranny may soon have 
a millstone tied about her neck, and be cast into the midst of the sea ; 
and that religions liberty may be itniief! to sit down upon ihe empty tlironc, 
grad swa^ her sceptro over the whole of Frottstaut Europe ! 



APPENDIX. 69 

XXVI. Page 437. Longevity of the Millennial state. 

Tiu' p:issaj;e isiii!) Ixv : 20—22, is generally understood to refer to thf- 
dory ut 111!.' Idltcr (i:>y, ol" which Longevity will be a dlsting;uislied blcFsii!;^. 
l«i the iiTiproved veisioii of tlie words from Bishop Lowth ; 

** No more siial! tlure he an infant short lived; 

Nor an old man who hath not fulfi'ird his days ; 

Ftii he that dieth at a iiuodied years shall die a boy ; 

And the sinner that dieth at a hundred years shall be deemed accciirscd. 

And they shall bnild houses, and shall itdiabit them ; 

Anil they shall plant vineyards, and shall eat the fruit thereof ; 

They shall not plant, and another eat ; 

For as the days ol a tree shall be tiie days of my people ; 

And tiiey shall wear out the works of their own hands." 

Tite prospeions state of the christian church is the object in view; and 
" tlie new heaven's and the new earth," signify that glorions and hapjjv 
state of believets. when the knowledge of the Lord shall be universal, whoa 
war shall hive ceased, and peaee and joy prevail all over the world. 

The dination of human lile will then be lengthened. At present nearly 
half of the human race die in infancy ; but this sad mortality shall cease, 
aiid there shall be no more'* an infant short-lived ;" nne that *' comes up 
Ike a flower" in the momin-, and (ades before noon. The man wlio now 
ihe% at seventy, is thought to have lived long ; but then, he who shall die 
atahiindred, shall have i\\eA—a youth ; and the sinner, if he should be 
fou'tdeveti in the Millennium, vvdl be judged to have perished by an early 
and luitimely death, if he complete only a century. But, generally, tiic 
people of that period shall enjoy a continuance of life, equal to that of a 
long-lived tree ; the expression denotes a great length of life, probably e- 
qual to ihatof the Antediluvians. 

One advantage to be obtained, will be the enjoymeiil of man's labour. 
It was a cursf denounced on a wicked man of oh!, " Thou shalt build a 
house, and thou shalt not dwell therein ; thou shalt plant a vineyard, and 
.shtdt not gather the grapes thereof;" — death shall cut thee off, and so ne* 
prive ihee of the expected Irnit of thy toil. But in the Millennial state, the 
builder ol a house shall live long to enjoy the accommodations he had plan- 
ned atui producet) ; and he shall be gratified with the rich produce of the 
orchard he planted. And this enjoyment shall be so extended, that he 
shall have occasion to build and plant again, for " he shall wear out the 
woiks of his own hands." This is rarely, if ever now the case. Even a 
slightiy-buiit house will generally be habitable long after its builder is in the 
grave ; and mansions, such as mea of affluence erect may be tenanle<l by 
succeeding generations of the same family : but in the Millennium, the 
builder must build another house, which may accommodate him and his in- 
creising family for a i'ew e( nturies longer. 

It may be asked, " What advantage will there be in all this ? Do we 
not find that old age is usually attended with labour and sorrow ; that de- 
sir.ps fail ; the senses become blunt, and the man of many years says, f havn 
no ph asure in them ?" It is so now, but the true longevity which we con- 
template will be vigorous and tranquil — the old age of Moses ; concerning 
whom, when he had finished his 120 years, we are told that " his eye was 
not dim, neither was his natural force abated." Grey hairs will then in- 
deed be a crown of glory. These aged .saints will descend the hill of iilip, 
rejoicing m the consolations of the Gospel; and their hearts exult in the 
pleasing hope of being ere long removed from earth, and united to the gen- 
eral as'^^embly and church of the first-bora in heaven, where thf^y shall bo 
ever with the Lerd. 



70 APPENDIX. 

A believer of 3 or 400 years will be able to entertain the joiith of his 
day with the pleasing relation of what he has witnessed in the growisig; ad- 
vancement of the Saviour's kingdom ; and the triumphs of divine ^irace in 
the subjugation of whole nations to the seeptre of Immanuel. Men of 
God, who have preached bis word for 5 or 600 years, will be heard witti 
proibund attention, sacred delight, and unspeakable edification; and the ri- 
sing generations will be stimulated to holy zeal in promoting the kingdom of 
the Saviour. 

The Scriptures will be far better understood in those happy days than 
Ihey are at present. The developement of the prophecies willaliord a high 
degree of delight, and prove a key to those which remain imaccomplished. 
The observation and experience of wise and good men, who have walked 
with God longer than Enoch or Noah did, will throw a wonderful beauty and 
lustre on ihe sacred book, and render the study of it inconceivably gratifying 
to pious minds ; while the neariag prospect of the final consummation of 
the whole system of redemption, will produce an anticipation of bliss, cre- 
ating a "heaven begun below." 

CONCLUSION. 

Christians ongUt to be familiar with the uniformity and progress of divine 
truth ; the persecutions and fortitude oi" th« martyrs ; the dehisious ol" nud- 
titbrm heresy, and its fever shifting but inalienable adherents ; the labours, 
trials, and triumphs of Reformers ; and " the faith and patience of tiie 
Saints." To them the authentic history of their fellow Pilgrims to Zion, 
and of their Lord's terrestiiil kingdom, ought to be estimated as inferior on- 
ly to the Sacred Books. 

The imperfections of this work were unavoidable : — it was not proposed to 
be an abridgement ; the object .vas to convey some idea of the n»jner- 
ons alternations which in the revolutions of eighteen centuries, the christian 
world has experienced ; to elicit some obvious reflections which might bene- 
fit the believing auditors, and also to excite an attention in others to the 
most interesting and advantageous portions of the history of mankind : it ivas 
not intended to supersede a recurrence to the more minute details of 
other historians, but if possible to inspire a taste for an extensive aoquaint- 
ance with the annals of Christianity, in them who were ignorant of the sub- 
lime instructions connected with the course of the Mart vrs, Keformer. ind 
the other worthies who have successively dignified the christian pil:itim^ge. 

The Author has examined and selected his materials from the foiiowiiig 
writers: Josephus' Works — fiistin — TertuHian— Origen— Arnobius—Euse- 
bius — Socrates and B>agrius' History — Lactantius — Augustine- Fox's l)ook 
of Martyrs — Paul's Coimcil of Trent — Burnet's History of the Retbrmaiion 

Neal's Piuitans— Nonconformists' Memorial— Mosiieim's Hi-tory— Jor- 

tin's Reflections — Newton's Review— Campbell's Lectures — Mdner's His- 
tory— Hawies' History— Sabine's History— Mather's Magnalia— Baxter's 
Narrative — Bogueand Bennett's History of Dissenters — Br oks' Puritans — 
Edwards' Popery — -Woodwortli's Biography — M'Crie's Knox — -Hess' 
Zuinglius-Cox's Melancthon— Mackenzie's Calvin- Gilpin's Liv^s of Wick- 
liflfe, "Cranmer, &c. — Thomson's Lectures— Edwards' Redemption— Whit- 
field's Life— Brown's History— Wesley's Works— Encyclopedia Brittanni- 
ca— Bower's History of the Popes— and the Universal History— with a 
large number of other volumes and peiio ileal works in which the general 
subject has been incidentally introduced, especially the modern Religious 
Magazines. It is proper also to state, that the Author has extracted many 
paragraphs verbatim from the various writers who have been consult* (i, and 
which are generally quoted ; but where the language has been altered, or 
the passage abridged, or so incorporated with his own sentiments as in a great 



APPENDIX. 71 

measure to lose its identity, then the marks of quotation have been neglect- 
ed ; but ill man) instauces the omission has been unintentional. 

The history oi thp modern European sects has been compiled from late 
ibroign publiiations ; manv passages of which are in the languao;e of the 
anoitymons authors : and at least one half ol" the last lecture, on the Millen- 
iiirim is little more tliaii a condensed summary of part of Bogue's l\Tenty 
discourses on lliat sublime and interesting topic. 

In p.ges 288, 300, 367, reference is made to a future review, it was 
deei»:ed expedient not to renew the discussion. 

The Author peculiarly legrets the imperfect ions in the biographical 
dfp« tm<nl ; but in attempting to supply the void, he found it absolutely 
imir I' tieablc to compress into any succinct form a narrative of the 
proir^Nient eharaeteristics of U'ose most rtnowned christian chiefs, who "now 
throuj^Haith and patience inierit the promises :" this loss, however, an 
iijiaguiiiion vivified by the influence of the holy Spirit, can easily reimburse j 
as jhe lives olGospe! labourers in fver> portion oftlie field are very similar, 
exc'pt as they are varied by activity and chequered by opposition ; their 
motives, pursuits, objects, and spiritual characteristics being UDiforiulj 
ideutical. 

An atteutive reader will discern some re{;etitions ; it is only necessary to 
remark, that they wcredesigued ; the Author endeavoured lii some instances 
to avoid them, but the attempt produced so much obscurity that the Lectures 
when deUvered would have beeu uuintelligible. 

The very abridged notice of the American churches was the result of 
imperious necessity. To remedy the omission, a defect which under any 
possible circumstance would have been palpable, the Author is preparing 
foi pulilication, a succinct narrative of the rise, progress, and present condi- 
tion of the christian denominations and religious institutions, in the United 
States which will be issued as speedily as the volume can be completed. 

Prubal)ly it may be said, that some of the language is too strong; It is 
replied, these were popular lectures, and of course in some measure partook 
of tliat excitement, without which ail public addresses are not only frigid, 
hni V'X et preterea nihiL Nevertheless, while the Author has not been 
ahaid, '* plainly and boldly to call Qjig, 2ijig, and a spade^ a spade ;" he 
has felt hi2;h delight In imperfectly euiogizing the stedlast followers of the 
Lamb. His luotio was, nullius addktusjur are in verba magistri ; under 
its influence, he has searched lor tlie tpUh evtensively, patiently, and for 
some of hischristsan auditors beneficially ; and he devoutly prays, that his 
readers also may enjoy, through the divine benediction, the advantages of 
additional ilhimination, fortitude, and zeal in the service of Jehovah ; that 
thus tiiey may •* grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and l^a- 
viour Jesus Christ." 



FINIS. 



.^ 



INDEX TO THE APPENDIX. 



AraiiiiiaBism, Of/ 

vVustin Friars, 22 

Eiiptismal controversy, (;1 

Benedictines, 17 
Calviij, John 35, 60 

Ciinons, 10 

Carmelites, 21 

Carthusians, IS 

Chrislianity verified by facts, 2 

Cistercians, 19 

Cluuiacs, 18 
Congregationalism, 6, 65 

Cranmer, Thomas 38 

iDominicans, 21 

False Miracles, 15 

Franciscans, 2f) 

InitependenLs, 64 

Jpsuils, 23 

K: ox, John 42 

Letter from Lyons, 9 

Letter from Smyrna 7 

Longevity of the Milleuuium, 69 

Luther, Martin 26 

Mathurines, 20 

Melancthon. Philip ' f7 

Mthod'st Missionary Society, *>5 

Min. Walter ^^ 

Modfrn denonninations, 65 

Moukisb orders, ^^ 

Mythologists, ^ 

Orijs; in of couacils, 14 

Pamphiius, *" 

petef's visit to Rome, ^ 



Po?ycarp, 



7 

Protestants, ^"^ 

Relics, l^ 

Religious education, ^' 

Religious restrictions, ^^ 

Sancjtus, H 

Scotch Secession, ^^ 

Scotland before the ReformatioD> »>0 

Seven churches of Asia^ 6 

S.cinus, ^0 

Supp'emsnt to the Preface, ^^ 

Theological Seminaries, ^® 

UnUrok a siiccessioia, ^jf 

ZuingUus Ulrie, "^^ 



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